final preparations in the Roman circus centre

Today (25th March), a team of Trust volunteers were hard at work in the Roman circus centre on our final preparations for the re-opening of the centre to visitors – assisted by some Trust members of staff! We had volunteers all over the circus centre. Richard was in the ‘archaeology in action’ room and Neil was in the ‘chariot’ room. Roger, Shirley and Paulette were in the ‘circus model’ room. Other volunteers – Hilary, Catherine, Jane and Ed – were getting on with the archaeological work of processing pottery and human bones.

The circus super-model was being lavished with attention today, as Roger, Shirley and Paulette installed thousands of tiny spectators, mostly seated in the seating-stands but with some walking around outside the circus. The spectators, like the super-model, are at a scale of 1:100. They have all been 3d-printed and individually hand-painted with the colours of the four Roman chariot-racing teams: blue, green, red and white. So far, impressively, only one tiny spectator has been damaged during installation in the circus super-model… Work also continued on the visitor walkway over the remains of part of the real circus, in front of our building.

We are re-opening the circus centre and site to visitors on Saturday 28th March with a special opening event, 10.00am-4.00pm: see details at www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/poster-data-z.jpg .

With many thanks to all our volunteers, as always.

The images are all from today and show Trust volunteers Roger, Shirley and Paulette adding spectators to the circus super-model; Shirley (who built the model) getting up close with the spectators; a new display being installed; and the visitor walkway.

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