surveying on the site of the circus starting-gates

Today (12th March), Trust archaeologists Chris Lister and Mark Baister were out in the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess, next to the Trust’s building Roman Circus House, surveying on the site of the circus starting-gates. Last week, builders Mick and John began building the ‘Roman’ stumps of the starting-gates (carceres) for us, and today Chris and Mark were surveying and laying out markers for the two curved ends of the seating stand (cavea), where they joined on to the two sides of the starting-gates. One of the two ends is currently indicated by a rough mound of topsoil. When all the markers are in place, the builders will be able to start building the ‘Roman’ walls of the two ends; these are going to be level with the tops of the stumps of the starting-gates, and filled with soil to represent seating. The surveying is being done using Total Station and the detailed plan which the Trust produced from our excavation of the site of the starting-gates in 2007.

From CAT Report 412: ‘… another research excavation took place in the gardens of the Sergeants’ Mess and the former Army Education Centre courtesy of Taylor Wimpey, their new owners. The work was funded from various sources … The aim of the work was to fix the exact position of the gates and to recover the plan of two of the stalls so that the complete plan of the gates could be reconstructed on paper. Resources were very limited and much of the work was carried out by volunteers from the Friends of the Colchester Archaeological Trust. The work proved successful and two of the stalls were found as well as the foundation of the north wall of the magistrate’s box …’

Colchester’s Roman circus is full of surprises and unusual features. For example, we discovered that it had eight starting-gates instead of the twelve gates which are usual in Roman circuses around the empire. The magistrate’s box was built over the gateway in the middle of the gates. The starting-gates in a circus were allocated to chariots by lot at the beginning of each race since some gates made for a better racing start than others. Roman architects used different strategies to even out the differences in the lanes, ie by curving the line of starting-gates, by placing them off centre or by tilting them at an angle and, at Lepcis Magna in Libya, the line of the starting-gates was curved and did not extend across the whole width of the circus. At Colchester’s circus, the starting-gates were placed slightly off-centre to the north and with a very slight curve.

We are building ‘Roman’ stumps of the starting-gates immediately above the foundations of the actual starting-gates, which requires great precision. (The Roman foundations are undisturbed and protected below ground.) When we have finished all our work to enhance the circus site in the garden of the former Sergeants’ Mess, we will open it to visitors.

For more details on the circus starting-gates, see text below the images here or read CAT Report 412 in full in our online archive.

The images show the excavation of the starting-gates in 2007; our plan of the starting-gates, with the areas of black tone showing the excavated evidence; and Chris and Mark surveying on the site of the starting-gates today, with the former Sergeants’ Mess in the background and one of the ‘Roman’ stumps to the left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More from CAT Report 412 on the archaeology of the circus starting-gates: ‘… An L-shaped area [was] excavated to explore the remains of the starting gates. It was sited in the northern part of the garden of the Sergeants’ Mess in the hope of finding two of the starting gates. In the event, the sites of two complete examples were uncovered plus part of a third to the north plus the northern part of the gate to the south which split the range of starting gates into two equal parts and carried the magistrate’s box above it. The uppermost archaeological remains proved to be only about 0.3m below ground-level which meant that they had been damaged whenever there was deep digging in the garden. The aim of the investigation was to uncover enough of the gates to allow the reconstruction of the ground-plan of the west end of the circus. Importantly, the work was to be undertaken with as little disturbance to the remains as possible. This meant that the investigations were restricted to uncovering whatever archaeological deposits or features proved to exist within the excavation area with no further investigative work that might cause damage or loss to them. Consequently, this was how the excavation was conducted … The stalls were defined on the ground by three shallow east-west foundations. These show that the stalls were separated from each other by a solid wall rather than pairs of piers as at Mérida, Lepcis Magna and elsewhere. The foundations were shallow and of very poor quality. They were probably built in much the same way as the foundation for the inner wall of the cavea. They were made of loose chips of greensand although, in some places, these appeared to have been bound together with small amounts of mortar… The occurrence of mortar in the foundations seemed rather haphazard. Perhaps, as with the chippings, the foundation trenches were useful places in which to dispose of unwanted fresh mortar mixes during the construction works. The southernmost foundation (F8) was the best preserved of the three with some damage at the west end leaving it uncertain how far westwards it had extended. The central foundation (F5) had been damaged at the east end, leaving it difficult to be certain of its full extent. The western end was neatly squared off as if it was still intact although there was a small patch of mortared foundation which seemed to partly underlie it and extend further westwards as if it was the remains of an earlier foundation. The foundation had also been damaged by a service trench extending north-east to south-west. This had cut through the western half of the foundation and removed a small part of it. The northern foundation (F9) was poorly preserved, most of it having been destroyed by cultivation of the garden. The intended widths of the foundations are hard to determine because of the damage which the foundations have sustained. However, it looks as if the northernmost and central foundations were meant to have been the same width (ie about 1.1-1.2m) whereas the southernmost one was narrower (about 0.7-0.8m). This difference must reflect the fact that the first two foundations supported free-standing walls whereas the third one carried a wall which stood hard up against another one along its south side. Three small blocks of greensand at the east end (north side) of foundation F5 appear to be remains of the lowest course of the wall which the foundation supported… The east-west foundation F2 carried the north wall of the central gate. It was quite different to the other foundations and was of better quality since it was to support a much greater load. The foundation was wider (1.0-1.3m) than the others and was made of greensand chips set wholly in solid mortar (unlike the others). It was not possible to determine its depth but it clearly was much deeper than the foundations for the stalls … The passage through the central gate proved to have been metalled with a thin layer of gravel perhaps no more than a few centimetres thick. (It was left undisturbed so its depth could not be measured.) This was sealed by a 10cm-thick layer of demolition debris containing fragments of greensand, roof tile, and painted wall plaster. These deposits extended from the south edge of foundation F2 to the southern edge of the site and presumably cover the whole of the passage area through the gate. Fragments of wall plaster and roof tile have not been found so far in association with the circus (apart possibly from the odd scrap). The plaster and tile here suggest that part of the gate was plastered and painted and included a tile roof. This can only imply (as would be expected) that there was a box for the magistrate and his officials directly about the passage through the gate and that this was a substantial structure …’

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