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Volunteers poring over detailed aerial surveys of the borderlands between Cornwall and Devon spotted telltale signs of dozens of previously unknown settlements and miles of roads linking Roman forts. The project suggests areas including Bodmin Moor, in Cornwall, and Dartmoor, in Devon, were much more populous than previously had been thought. So far, less than a tenth of the material available has been studied but already 30 previously unknown settlements believed to date from between 300BC and AD300 have been found, as well as more than 20 miles of Roman road... Because this could not be done, the volunteers (just...

Aerial flood maps of Britain are revealing more than just at-risk regions - they have also led to the discovery of several Roman roads. Amateur archaeologists have been able to use the flood-mapping technology to trace the paths of Roman roads which have remained buried under the land for some 1,600 years. The aerial flood maps were created by aircraft equipped with laser scanners which measure the distance between the aircraft and the ground. Using light detection and ranging (Lidar) technology, the Environment Agency was able to detect the areas of Britain which are most at risk of flooding. The...

English Heritage is conducting stabilisation work at the site Archaeologists have found traces of a Roman settlement at a 5,000-year-old landmark man-made hill in Wiltshire.English Heritage believes there was a Roman community at Silbury Hill about 2,000 years ago. The 130ft Neolithic mound near Avebury - one of Europe's largest prehistoric monuments - is thought to have been created some 3,000 years earlier. Experts carrying out a project to stabilise the hill say the site may have been a sacred place of pilgrimage. Human activity English Heritage geophysicist Dr Neil Linford said: "We are really excited by this discovery...

Ermine Street, the search for a stretch of which featured in the Cheshunt programme in the 2002 series, is far from being one of the longest Roman roads; those are to be found in mainland Europe. But it is one of the best known – and for the Romans, most important – in Britain. It linked London with Lincoln (passing through Ancaster, which also features in the 2002 series) before continuing on to the Humber, inland from the modern road bridge, at Winteringham. Long, straight stretches of it can still be plotted on a map; much the same route...

Everyone who lived at the Roman fort at Brougham, Cumbria, was buried in a cemetery close by. Excavation of the graves revealed an astonishing world of pagan beliefs. Hilary Cool explainsSome sites are dug before their time. Such was the case with the cemetery at Brougham in Cumbria. Brougham was long ago identified with Brocavum, a place noted in the 3rd century AD road book known as the Antonine Itinerary. Antiquarian reports had recorded Roman tombstones from the area east of the fort and vicus, an attached civilian settlement, alongside the trans-Pennine road. So excavations were planned when it was...