Colchester Castle Museum re-opens with new displays of archaeology of Colchester

Colchester Castle Museum re-opened on the 2nd May after being closed to visitors for over a year, with the castle itself having undergone major works and the museum displays having been modernised.

All the finds which the Colchester Archaeological Trust excavates during fieldwork projects in and around Colchester are passed to the museum by arrangement with our clients, which we have been doing since the Trust was established over forty years ago. (Finds from other parts of Essex, Suffolk or even Hertfordshire are passed to the relevant museum or museum service.) Most of our archaeological projects are commissioned and funded by commercial clients. Most of the Colchester finds are held in the museum’s stores, but some are presented in the new displays at the museum.

The museum’s web-site says: ‘… Colchester’s Roman Archaeology Collection is one of international importance. In its early years, the museum service acquired its collection from amateur archaeologists and antiquarians. From the 1920s, the first scientific excavations (led by professional archaeologist Rex Hull) provided the groundwork for understanding Iron Age and Roman Colchester. In more recent times, it is [the] Colchester Archaeological Trust which continues to discover the wealth of material culture left behind by the Romans in Colchester …’

One of the most important displays in the revamped museum is the reconstructed ‘doctor’s grave’ which the Trust excavated during our major excavation at Stanway Quarry near Colchester in 1996-7. We had undertaken various investigations on the site from 1986, culminating in the excavation of 1996-7. The site was discovered by aerial photography in 1932, and it showed cropmarks indicating five ditched enclosures. The Stanway archaeological site is remarkable and the story of our discoveries there is interesting in itself.  The funerary enclosures on the site contained burials of the native aristocracy, dating to before and just after the Roman invasion of Britain, and they have produced a huge amount of information about the people and their relationship with the Roman empire. The ‘doctor’s grave’ was an extremely rich burial. It contained an amphora, pottery tablewares, a unique copper-alloy strainer bowl, the remains of a cloak or blanket and, as we excavated further and further down in the grave, even more amazing finds were revealed. In the base of the grave lay a gaming-board, on which had been placed gaming-counters, the cremated remains of the deceased and their kit of surgical instruments. Trust director Philip described the gaming-board as ‘extraordinary’, and the Trust’s best discovery ever – until we identified the Roman circus in August 2006… Both the gaming-board and the circus are of international archaeological importance and they attracted international attention.

Visitors to the museum can now try excavating a virtual ‘doctor’s grave’. The museum also now includes a display on the Roman circus and is displaying some of our most recent finds, for example, from the old garrison, around our building Roman Circus House. The remains of the circus – next to Roman Circus House – represent a really remarkable monument. However, Colchester is one of the most important archaeological sites in the country, so it is bursting with important archaeology and remarkable monuments and finds. To see it, you only have to walk round the town centre or visit Colchester Castle Museum – and you have to come and see the circus site and centre!

The webcam of part of the Trust’s excavation at Stanway in 1996-7 can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N6sF2KO8yI

The images show the ‘doctor’s grave’ in 1996-7 and the gaming-board being excavated, from the Trust’s book City of Victory – the story of Colchester, Britain’s first Roman town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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