The remains of two Roman altar stones have been uncovered in an East Lothian park during the redevelopment of a Musselburgh cricket pavilion.

As the Lewisvale Park pavilion lies partially within a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Roman and Iron Age Field Systems) permission to undertake excavations for the building foundations and to lay services was required from Historic Scotland. This was approved on the condition that a programme of archaeological work was carried out.

Working with Historic Scotland, the Council's Archaeology Service prepared a project design and AOC Archaeology Ltd was appointed to carry out the fieldwork.

During the initial soil removal, two Roman altar stones were uncovered along with a number of other archaeological features. Both altars were carved along the edges and on one face.

The position of the carved face suggested that the stones had been toppled at some point, which means that until they are cleaned, it is not known exactly what is carved on them. However, initial results indicate that at least one of the altars is 2nd Century in date and was dedicated to the Roman God Jupiter (King of the Gods and ruler of the sky and earth). Both altars show ornate carvings and work is in progress to remove the soil so they can be analyses.

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The remaining features are also though to be Roman in date and consist of a number of postholes, possibly representing a building, pits and ditches. A number of objects were also recovered from the archaeological features and they include pieces of a lead bowl, some fine pottery as well as some rough handmade pottery.

Historic Scotland and East Lothian Council Archaeology Service are working closely with the contractors to analyse the remains.

Cabinet member for Community Wellbeing, Councillor Paul McLennan said: "The discovery of these remains is particularly exciting as it is not often that Roman altar stones are discovered during an archaeological excavation in Scotland. This helps with the emerging picture of life in and around the Roman Fort at Inveresk during the 2nd Century.

"2010 will be an exciting time to be involved with the heritage of Musselburgh particularly given the opening of the new Musselburgh Museum and the increased awareness of the Battle of Pinkie."

The archaeological excavation of the footprint of the building has now finished although some monitoring of service trenches will be required. As a result, work has now restarted on the pavilion's construction.

(GK)