800 ancient Roman blade sharpeners found in Britain
At the height of its power, the Roman Empire extended as far as Britain. Rome did not, however, view the region as remote or unimportant to its audacious goals. Drawing on a new trove of archaeological objects discovered in northeast England, Britain was home to critical sites that supplied the empire’s vast military complex.
For six months in 2025, researchers from the University of Durham in the United Kingdom searched for the new evidence on the banks of the River Wear, not far from Newcastle, England. There, experts located more than 800 whetstones, traditional tools used to sharpen blades and weapons, the largest such deposit in northwest Europe. Archaeologists then used optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to date the objects. OSL is particularly useful for dating quartz and other minerals that accumulate tiny amounts of energy from sunlight.
After focusing heat or light on the material in a controlled environment, scientists can determine how long an object has been buried in sediment. While the soil beneath the whetstones dates from 42 to 184 CE, samples taken from the tools date back to 104 to 238 CE, when the Romans occupied the island.
Additional nearby evidence supports the theory that the area functioned as a military manufacturing center. Researchers noticed a sandstone formation across the river, a likely sign that the Romans had chosen this location to mine materials for their whetstones. In addition to the small tools, the team also unearthed five stone anchors. These, coupled with six other anchors discovered along a nearby location in 2022, suggest that the waterway was home to ships that transported sandstone across the river.
Why so many sharpening stones? The answer probably lies in their general condition. All of the artifacts showed some form of damage, meaning the artisans likely tossed them aside because they did not meet the Roman army’s whetstone length requirements. According to Durham University, the army “was particularly concerned with the uniformity of its equipment”.
The archaeological finds here not only date back to ancient Roman occupation. Other discoveries in the sediment layers included a stone and wooden pier, scissors, a Tudor-era leather shoe and even cannonballs and munitions from the English Civil Wars of 1642 to 1651.
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