Photograph by Michael Trolove
The carved stone head of an 1,8000 year-old figure has been found in an “ancient rubbish dump” in County Durham.
The figure was discovered by first-year archaeology student Alex Kirton at Binchester Roman Fort, near Bishop Auckland and is estimated to date from the 2nd or 3rd century.
There are no inscriptions of the 20cm stone carving, but it looks similar to the Celtic deity Antenociticus, a statue of whom was found in Newcastle in 1862, and is thought to have been worshipped locally at the time, and does not appear to be mentioned outside the northern frontier.
The dig is a joint project between Durham County Council, Durham University’s Department of Archaeology, Stanford University’s Archaeology Centre, and Durham and Northumberland’s Architectural and Archaeological Society.
