#ThrowbackThursday Colchester Royal Grammar School

#ThrowbackThursday to one of our excavations at Colchester Royal Grammar School 

The watching brief was carried out between August and September 2005 as building work for a new science block revealed the well-preserved foundations of a substantial hexagonal Roman structure within a rectangular walled enclosure (first picture) – a ‘temple-tomb’  as we called it.

Although nothing had been recorded from this specific location before, previous investigations in the immediate area had shown that this site was in close proximity of many Roman burials and funerary monuments – so we knew we were likely to find some exciting things!

The ‘temple-tomb’ was an extraordinary monument to a wealthy citizen of Roman Colchester (second picture), and was associated with two cremation burials within the hexagon, four within the walled area and one outside, burials which included a significant amount of animal bone. We can tell that this was a special structure due to the presence of tufa in the construction, as this was reserved for use in special structures such as the triumphal arch at Balkerne gate.

What was particularly interesting however was finding the bones of a sparrow hawk , along with the bones of at least four other young falcons in one of the burials. The inclusion of the sparrowhawk with human remains could suggest that the buried person was a falconer, although we aren’t entirely sure…  What do you think???

Written by work experience student Henry.
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