‘featherstone’: an archaeological petrologist visits 97 High Street, Colchester

On Friday (1st April), archaeological petrologist (stone specialist) Dr Kevin Hayward and Roman sculptural art specialist Ms Penny Coombe came to see the foundations of the monumental Roman arcade at 97 High Street in Colchester. They met Trust director Philip and Trust archaeologist and site supervisor Don Shimmin on site. They came to examine one large stone which we excavated there last year, but they also looked at a smaller stone which had been excavated within the site of the temple precinct in 1964. On Saturday (2nd April), Dr Hayward emailed their report on the two stones to us.

Dr Hayward and Ms Coombe identify both of the stones as possibly being paving slabs or the large stone perhaps being a lintel. The large stone is 70 cm long, 35 cm wide, 16.5 cm thick, and roughly rectangular in shape but with a slightly curved vertical front and evidence of a broken-off flange. On the back it shows evidence of having been worked with a point chisel. Both stones are worked limestone blocks. We invited the two specialists to come and examine the large stone to establish whether it derives from the Roman arcade or is a later addition. We also hoped to discover the geological character and geological source of the two stones.

Dr Hayward has previously reported on Roman stone material from the precinct of the Temple of Claudius, in Roman quarrying and stone supply on the periphery – southern England. A geological study of first century funerary monuments and monumental architecture (by K M J Hayward, 2009). He identified several types of limestone from the precinct area which had been used for paving and inscriptions, including an inscription stone from Calcaires a Polypiers (in the Moselle Valley) and rubble fragments of Lower Lincolnshire Limestone (from Lincoln). Paving slabs and ashlar from the precinct’s concrete piers were made of Ham Hill stone (from Somerset). The smaller stone excavated in 1964 also seems to have been quarried at Ham Hill. Ham Hill stone, apparently, shows very low porosity and the most resistant level of durability, so it is only suitable for ashlar and paving. Our large stone was identified as ‘a hard grey earthy shelly (bioclastic) limestone with numerous small hollowed-out bivalve fragments’ (quarrymen call this ‘featherstone’). As Dr Hayward observes, stone was brought from long-distance quarries to build the very high-status, monumental Temple of Claudius and its precinct here in Colchester. Dr Hayward writes that the different limestones and building materials used in the temple and precinct would have created elements of different, contrasting colours, ie yellow stone paving, white stone inscriptions and red brick, in ‘… the earliest monumental building programme in the province of Britain …’. Dr Hayward and Ms Coombe’s report will be included in our report on the site.

The Trust exposed part of the foundations of the monumental arcade of the precinct of the Temple of Claudius at 97 High Street in Colchester in 2015. The Temple of Claudius was the only temple dedicated to an imperial cult in Roman Britain, and the arcade at the front of its precinct seems to have been the largest yet found in the northern Roman empire… Read more about the arcade on this web-site at www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=24774 .

The Trust’s excavations at 97 High Street were funded by Flying Trade Group plc. The exposed arcade foundations will be permanently displayed under glass in the floor of the cafe which they are now installing at 97 High Street.

The images show the large stone in situ from two different angles, after our excavation; and Dr Hayward on site on Friday, examining the large stone and also looking at other stones on the site, with Don. (Thanks to Penny Coombe for the two Friday photo.s.)

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