Yesterday (19th June), the Trust completed the first phase of our current evaluation on a development site to the rear of 97 High Street in Colchester town centre, within the Roman town wall. The evaluation is being undertaken by Trust archaeologist Don Shimmin, assisted by Trust excavator Laurie; the site was surveyed by Trust archaeologist Chris Lister assisted by Trust excavator Nathan. On Thursday (12th June), we made a remarkable discovery on the site. We know that the site includes some four-star Roman archaeology, after an earlier evaluation which we conducted here last year. The site lies within the Roman temple’s walled precinct, which was fronted by a monumental arcade with a central monumental gateway. Our remarkable discovery was of a collapsed column of the arcade.
The development site lies within the site of the Roman precinct of the Temple of Claudius, the podium (foundation) of which survives as the vaults below Colchester Castle. The temple was built in AD 49-60 and dedicated to the Emperor Claudius, who led the Roman conquest of Britain; he died and was deified in AD 54. It is the only known temple of the imperial cult in Britain. The arcade fronting the temple precinct was built on a grand scale and it is unique in Britain. The Temple of Claudius is the largest classical-style Roman temple known in Britain. The monumental arcade was discovered in 1931 and it has been investigated several times, for example, in 1953 and 1964. Last year, Don uncovered part of the huge foundations of the arcade during our earlier evaluation here. (The front cover of our popular book City of Victory shows a reconstruction drawing of the temple, precinct and arcade.)
The current evaluation is on a part of the development site which has not previously been investigated. We actually excavated two trenches here to see how much of the defensive Norman earthen bank – part of the original defensive system of the castle – survives here. We found 11th- to 12th-century (Norman) deposits, which produced lots of fragments of pottery, animal bone and shell. This is extremely interesting, as it is unusual to find pottery of that date in the town centre. These deposits may represent the northern side of the earthen bank itself or layers which accumulated against the side of the bank. We have also uncovered a later inhumation burial, probably of an unfortunate inmate of the castle when it was used as a prison in the 16th and 17th centuries. This is all very interesting archaeology; however, even more interesting than that is the collapsed Roman column.
This remarkable discovery is actually part of a Roman column, possibly the top part. It was constructed of alternating courses of brick and stone, and it would have been plastered. We found the column lying within the Norman deposits, and it seems to tell a fascinating story. The details of the column suggest that some of the Roman arcade was still standing when the Normans arrived in Colchester. They must have robbed the facing stones of the arcade to re-use in the building of the castle and, as part of the robbing process, pushed this column over and left the remains in situ. Perhaps the Normans created the earthen bank here, on a line close to the line of the Roman arcade, for similar topographical reasons or, perhaps, so that the remains of the arcade could be incorporated in the earthen bank. The collapsed Roman column and the Norman earthen bank together demonstrate the architecture and engineering, the structures and mechanisms of power, of two invading forces.
After our discovery of the column, we uncovered it, measured it, recorded it photographically, and had it planned by hand by Trust archaeologist Emma Holloway. We have left it in situ. The developers are planning to showcase the four-star Roman archaeology on the site by including glass floor areas in the new building on the site, which is planned to be a cafe.
The site is managed by Horizon Construction, and the Trust’s evaluations on the site are being funded by the Flying Trade Group plc.
The images show the site, and Laurie carefully excavating the collapsed column, on the 12th.
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