Roman circus remains exposed by service trench

On Friday (12th September), Trust archaeologists Adam Wightman and Mark Baister monitored the excavation of a service trench not far from Roman Circus House. The trench is being excavated for the laying of a power cable for new street lamps which have been installed in Le Cateau Road. The trench exposed the robbed-out foundations of the inner and outer walls of the seating-stand (cavea) of the circus, just on the curve which is adjacent to the starting-gates. The exposed remains of the circus are where we expected them to be, and they look good.

Interestingly, the first recorded exposure of any remains of the circus was in May 2000, when the remains of the foundation for the outer wall of the cavea were cut in two places by workmen digging trenches for an electricity cable… In November 2004 it was suggested that the different fragments of structural evidence which the Trust was recording over a wide area might, all together, represent a single large structure – ie a Roman circus. In the summer of 2005, the evidence from our investigations confirmed that we had indeed uncovered the remains of a Roman circus! In February-March 2007, the Trust excavated two small exploratory trenches in the garden of the former Army Education Centre (now Roman Circus House), and uncovered the foundations of the inner cavea wall. In February-March 2007, we conducted a small area excavation in the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess next door, to explore the remains of the circus starting-gates. By September 2007, we had recovered a complete ground-plan of the circus, with further small excavations on the site of the starting-gates in September-October 2007. The site of the circus was scheduled as an Ancient Monument in November 2007.

The remains of the circus which we excavated in the front garden of our building Roman Circus House last year are still exposed and can be viewed. These remains include the foundations of the inner and outer cavea walls and three buttresses, some of which are robbed-out and some of which survive in situ.

The images show the service trench and two sections of the remains of the circus on Friday, with Mark recording above the outer wall of the cavea and then the inner wall of the cavea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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