#ThrowbackThursday Lower Castle Park

For this #ThrowbackThursday we are looking at some of our work in Lower Castle Park, Colchester.

In 2010, we monitored the excavation of foundation trenches for an art installation at Lower Castle Park.

Once the turf was removed, we observed modern finds (i.e plastic bottle tops) in the upper part of the trenches. A cluster of post-medieval/modern nails were also identified

Beneath this top soil, occasional inclusions of stone, charcoal and ceramic building material (CBM) were identified. Peg-tile fragments and some very well-preserved animal bones derived from domesticates (some exhibiting butchery marks) and a deer, were also recovered.

Two archaeological features were identified during the watching brief. Firstly, a shallow ditch with fragments of Roman brick and tile. Of particular interest in this ditch was a large fragment of Mammata, tile which are not particularly common from excavations in Colchester. Underneath this, a square shaped pit was identified. This contained large building material fragments such as Roman brick septaria and worked limestone

To learn more about this site, please check out CAT Report 569 at http://cat.essex.ac.uk