Kathryn Murphy
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kmurphster.bsky.social
Kathryn Murphy
@kmurphster.bsky.social
1K followers 370 following 43 posts
Archaeologist. GIS, databases & survey. Mostly Romans, but now straying into the Early Medieval. She/Her. 🇨🇦 in 🇬🇧. Wear a mask! 😷
Views my own.

Currently Data Scientist on @remade-uor.bsky.social
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kmurphster.bsky.social
Saw some remains of Traiectum Roman fort in Utrecht. It sits under the Dom Square & was built over by different layers of religious buildings. You can see some of the remains on an underground tour & the line of the walls is marked by metal panels showing the line of the frontiers
#RomanFortThursday
A short section of Roman stone wall, dramatically lit. In the background, a red and black image of a reconstructed Roman building A pile of Roman roof tiles. Two of the pieces of tile have cat or drop paw prints on them A dramatically lit Roman copper alloy brooch, with inlaid enamel decoration A metal panel in the pavement. The line of the British frontier (Hadrian's Wall) is carved into the panel. The panel marks the location of the fort walls, which still survive below ground.
October 23, 2025 at 12:05 PM
kmurphster.bsky.social
Visited St Catherine's Hill hillfort, outside Winchester, a few weeks ago. The univallate fort encloses about 9ha. It was partially excavated in the 1920s, finding a IA settlement spanning 550-50 BC, Roman occupation & a mid 12th c Norman style chapel & earthworks on the summit. #HillfortsWednesday
Looking across the landscape at St Catherine's Hill hillfort. There are small shrubs and bushes in the foreground. On the hill, you can see the line of the hillfort defenses cutting across the side of the hill. There is a big cluster of trees right on the summit. Looking down the tree shaded rampart ditch of the hillfort, with the bank rising up on the left. The ditch is now one of the walking paths on the hill Looking out across the landscape from the top of the defensive hillfort bank. The line of the bank stretches out in front of you, with a steep drop into the ditch on the left. The top of the bank is marked by a white chalk path where the vegetation has been worn away by many footsteps. A plan drawing of the hillfort from an interpretive board on the site. It shows the oblong line of the defensive ramparts and ditch outlining the top of the hill, as well as the location of the Norman chapel on the summit.
September 3, 2025 at 9:03 AM
kmurphster.bsky.social
I biked out to Caesar's Camp hillfort a couple weeks ago. It covers about 17.2 acres & is one of the largest in southern England. It isn't the best land for farming, so it's thought to have been more of a marketplace under the Catuvellanuni. I found the bank & ditch in the trees! #HillfortsWednesday
Looking across the steep slopes and defensive ramparts on the north side of the hillfort. The slopes are covered in ferns and purple blooming heathers. There are trees in the distance. A sea of purple blooming heather in the interior of the hillfort. The field of heather is ringed by trees that are growing on the banks of the hillfort. Looking along the defensive ditch with the steep bank on the right hand side of the photo. Plan drawing of the hillfort. It is shaped like an oak leaf, with a ditch and two banks surrounding the entire site.
August 27, 2025 at 7:49 AM
kmurphster.bsky.social
Currently on holiday in Scotland and of course I found myself at a hillfort! Here's Craig Phadrig, west of Inverness. 1st photo - worn path is the top of the ramparts, 2nd photo - the outer slope of the ramparts. Parts of it were vitrified! #HillfortsWednesday
A worn path along the top of the ramparts of Craig Phadrig hillfort. The center of the enclosure is overgrown with ferns and there are trees encircling the enclosure. Lush, green overgrown slope of the outer bank of the hillfort ramparts
June 11, 2025 at 5:20 PM
kmurphster.bsky.social
Not a bad spot for a test pit & lunch break! #Archaeology @cancic.bsky.social
A view of the back of an old stone house with a garden plot in the foreground. There are big trees around the edge of the garden and blue skies overhead
April 12, 2025 at 12:25 PM
kmurphster.bsky.social
Thanks to @ads-update.bsky.social for getting all of this archived & online. Thank you to all the dedicated project volunteers who made all the WallCAP work possible. And thank you to the National Heritage Lottery Fund & @newcastleuni.bsky.social for all their support!
The WallCAP logo. It is a green leaf and the stem is the outline of a wall. It says Hadrian's Wall Community Archaeology on the leaf.
December 10, 2024 at 10:14 AM
kmurphster.bsky.social
The Stone Sourcing & Dispersal (aka geology strand) archive is also on @ads-update.bsky.social , including various guides to investigating, describing & identifying Wall stones, and a spreadsheet of Roman stone measurements taken by WallCAP volunteers. doi.org/10.5284/1100... #Archaeology #Geology
A geologist using a portable xray fluorescence (pXRF_ to analyse the chemical composition of Hadrian's Wall stones and Whin Sill bedrock. The line of Hadrian's Wall stretches along behind him.
December 10, 2024 at 10:14 AM
kmurphster.bsky.social
The Heritage At Risk (aka archaeology strand) archive is also on @ads-update.bsky.social, including excavation, conservation, geophysical survey & specialist reports, maps, plan & site drawings for all our sites along Hadrian's Wall! doi.org/10.5284/1100... #CommunityArchaeology #Archaeology
Map showing the line of Hadrian's Wall running from Newcastle upon Tyne to Bowness on Solway. There are red dots marking the location of WallCAP Heritage at Risk study sites at Heddon on the Wall, Portgate, Corbridge, Black Carts, Cat Stairs, Steel Rigg, Mucklebank Turret, Walltown Crags, Thirlwall Castle, Cambeck, Drumburgh and Port Carlisle. Four WallCAP volunteer excavators are digging in the trench, exposing archaeological features in a red-brown sandy soil. Dig director Jane is speaking to them from the side of the trench.
December 10, 2024 at 10:14 AM
kmurphster.bsky.social
The WallGIS is searchable, and you can set a variety of search criteria to find the records that you are most interested in. Criteria includes feature type, date, Wall width, artefact type found at a site, and dating evidence used to date a site/feature! @ads-update.bsky.social
shorturl.at/YqqR7 🏺
Screenshot of a webpage on the Archaeology Data Service showing the search criteria selection that can be chosen to search the WallGIS database. You can pick Feature Type, District, Dating Earlier or Later than, Pre- and/or Post-Roman activity, Wall width, Artefacts found and/or dating evidence.
December 10, 2024 at 10:14 AM
kmurphster.bsky.social
I'm super excited to let you know that the WallCAP WallGIS is now available on @ads-update.bsky.social! Every feature of Hadrian’s Wall has a record in the WallGIS with detailed info & spatial data, which can all be searched/viewed online! shorturl.at/FSr2z #Archaeology 🏺
Map showing the line of Hadrian's Wall with the symbols representing the forts, milecastles and turrets, and lines for the Wall, Vallum and north ditch. The basemap is different shades of green, and there is a legend on the right side of the map.
December 10, 2024 at 10:14 AM
kmurphster.bsky.social
Long Meg and some of her daughters in Little Salkeld, Cumbria from a trip in 2021. Long Meg is 3.7m tall, and there are 66 stones in the 120m wide circle (the 3rd widest in the UK) #StandingStoneSunday
A large standing stone, Long Meg, is on the left side of the image, with smaller standing stones, her daughters, in the background under a bright blue sky with some big white clouds.
December 8, 2024 at 10:36 AM
kmurphster.bsky.social
Making my way home after a couple days of excellent talks at the CAA UK conference. I haven't been in a few years, and it was great to be in a room full of archaeology data nerds again!
Managed to do a little bit of sightseeing around Canterbury before the conference (and Storm Bert) started too.
Canterbury Cathedral's towers rising up into a blue cloudy sky, with Christmas market stalls and a carousel in the square next to the Cathedral
November 23, 2024 at 3:04 PM
kmurphster.bsky.social
Big stones in a field from a few weeks ago #StandingStoneSunday
Stonehenge under a bright blue sky with a few fluffy clouds. A bird with its wings spread flies towards the camera.
November 17, 2024 at 12:01 PM
kmurphster.bsky.social
Super excited to be joining the Archaeology department at Reading as Post Doc Researcher in Data Science on the REMADE project! Looking forward to more heritage databases, data & GIS analysis/research, as well as seeing all the Cu alloy finds from across the UK! 🏺
Brick built academic building with ARCHAEOLOGY on the side of it in black letters, under a blue sky with fluffy clouds
October 17, 2023 at 8:17 AM
kmurphster.bsky.social
Not the usual #FindsFriday, but we found this little critter had made themselves quite cosy in the section of our SFB overnight. 🏺
A short tailed field vole poking its nose out of its burrow in the sandy section
October 6, 2023 at 12:25 PM
kmurphster.bsky.social
It's the weekend before our final week on site, so @sarahmiles.bsky.social and I are knee deep in checking context sheets and making lists of things to check/record on site before the trenches get backfilled on Friday! 🏺
Wooden kitchen table covered with a spread of grubby context recording sheets, permatrace section and plan drawings, notebooks, and pens.
September 30, 2023 at 2:08 PM
kmurphster.bsky.social
X marks the spot in trench 15 - getting final overall photos of the SFB earlier this week 🏺
In the foreground, an archaeological excavation trench with one large, sub oval feature. This has been excavated in quadrants, leaving standing bulks of soil in an X formation across the feature. The background shows the rest of the excavation site and a view across rural Northumberland under overcast skies.
September 30, 2023 at 8:33 AM