some surprises on a special site off St Clare Road, Colchester

The Trust is currently conducting a watching brief on a site at a property off St Clare Road, in the Lexden area of Colchester, during building works. The watching brief began in April. This special site is in an area of high archaeological potential – it is within the Iron Age oppidum of Camulodunum and just to the east of the Lexden Dyke which formed part of its system of defences. It is also within the area of the ‘Lexden cemetery’, a Late Iron Age and early Roman cremation cemetery. The scheduled site of the ‘Lexden tumulus’ – the well-known, rich Late Iron Age cremation burial dating to about 15-10 BC – lies to the south. The site is also adjacent to the Roman road (the line of which is now followed by the modern Lexden Road). The first evidence of the ‘Lexden cemetery’ was discovered in the 1820s, when Lexden Park house was being built (you can still see the house on Lexden Road). Pottery from the cemetery has been dated to the mid 1st-century BC to the early 1st century AD, but the cemetery seems to pre-date the Lexden tumulus. Most importantly, the pottery from the cemetery provides the earliest evidence for occupation at Camulodunum.

In December 2013, the Trust conducted an archaeological evaluation on the site. In our four evaluation trenches, we uncovered evidence of 21 archaeological features, ie six Roman inhumation burials, as well as two Roman ditches, undated ditches, post-medieval and modern pits, and further possible inhumation burials. The discovery of the Roman inhumation burials here is important, as the ‘Lexden cemetery’ was previously known only as a cremation cemetery: we now know that it also included inhumation burials. The evidence which we uncovered during the evaluation is reported on in CAT Report 745 and it led to an excavation being commissioned ahead of development on the site. The inhumation burials occurred in clusters, which suggests that they represent groups of people, who were possibly interred within family plots which may have been demarcated by ditch/banks as represented by the two Roman ditches. It is also possible that some of the other Roman features were burial-related, particularly the post-hole which may represent a grave-marker. The later features included pits, drains and a dump of building material, which are associated with the modern house and its gardens.

We partially excavated three of the burials. Of these, one produced only one fragment of Roman pottery, while the other two produced Roman pottery fragments and tile. However, two of the burials also produced iron coffin nails, which are typical of Roman inhumation burials. Yesterday (25th May), Trust pottery specialist Steve Benfield had a quick preliminary look at the pottery from the first phase of the excavation and identified ‘the usual suspects’, ie fragments of Roman pottery which represent samian ware, olive oil amphora/s, cooking-pot/s, large storage jar/s, flagon/s, and a mortarium, as well as some Roman roof-tile. Steve dates the majority of this pottery to the mid-late 1st-early 2nd century, with some earlier and some later pottery.

The Trust undertook the first phase of our excavation on the site in February 2016 and we are currently conducting the watching brief on the site while we wait to start the second phase of the excavation. Trust archaeologist Nigel Rayner has also been processing the soil samples from the first phase of the excavation back here at our HQ, Roman Circus House. The site has produced some surprises, for the site of a Late Iron Age-early Roman cremation cemetery… During the evaluation, we uncovered the Roman inhumation burials. During the first phase of excavation, we excavated the remains of a post-medieval shoe (hobnails representing the sole and heel) and during the watching brief, we have observed a 20th-century below-ground air-raid shelter in the garden. That’s archaeology! – and, in Colchester, that means centuries of very varied human activity.

The projects were supervised by Trust archaeologists Ben Holloway (the evaluation) and Adam Wightman (the first phase of the excavation), and the watching brief is being conducted by Trust archaeologist Nigel Rayner.

(On the 8th May, we posted an item in this blog about a site at the other end of St Clare Road but which refers to this site and the evidence from the evaluation here: read the previous item at www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=27368 .)

The image shows the  remains of the shoe.

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