This issue of the Colchester Archaeologist is twice as large as previous issues; there is thus an increase in production costs. For the first time the Trust has introduced advertising; our advertisers are con­ tributing to the cost of the magazine and gener­ ously supporting the Trust by advertising in this issue. The Trust is very grateful to the advertisers and hopes to help them promote their services and products, as well as provide a service to our read­ ers. We hope that you will reciprocate by support­ Cover ing our advertisers. front: Edward Smith with Roman stacking counters The Trust would like to thank the advertisers: from the Mercury Theatre site; Mick Aston, photo, by permission of Channel 4 Colchester Borough Council — page 15 back: English Heritage — page 31 the stacking counters Essex County Council — page 28 the Harwich Society — page 27 Pook Insurance — page 14 the Essex Society for Archaeology and History — inside back cover

The Colchester Archaeologist, With thanks to all the contributors to this issue of the magazine: Issue number 11 (1998) Prof Mick Aston of the University of Bristol Mike Corbishley of English Heritage Published by the Essex County Council Archaeology Section Colchester Archaeological Trust Ltd, Mark Taylor and David Hill, Glassmakers 12 Lexden Road, Dr Ralph Jackson of the British Museum Colchester, Adam Menuge of the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of Essex C03 3NF Fred Nash of the ECC Andrew Phillips tel./fax: Dr Paul Sealey of Colchester Museum 01206 541051 Dr Patricia Smith of the University of Essex email: Dr J P Wild of the Manchester Ancient Textiles Unit [email protected] WWW: http ://peipa.essex.ac.uk/cat The Colchester Archaeological Trust is a full-time professional unit, providing developers and others with a full range of archaeological services, from consultancies and site evaluation to full excavation. We have 25 years' experience of working in part­ nership with construction industry professionals and edited and produced by: local government planning departments. Gillian Adams The Trust is a registered charity and a company limited by guar­ all Trust text by: antee. The work is carried out by a team of fully trained and Philip Crummy insured archaeologists assisted by paid excavators and volunteers. The Trust also designs and publishes its own reports, books and magazines in-house.

Printed by Palladian Press, the Cowdray Centre, Colchester

1998 Colchester Archaeological Trust Ltd

ISSN 0952-0988

All pictures reproduced in this issue are by Colchester Archaeological Trust and © Colchester Archaeological Trust unless a credit is given. Contents

'treasure trove' 2 small projects 1997 3 the Mercury theatre Fingringhoe mill St Mary's hospital Hjgh Street Jacklins' shop

Stanway 1997 4 textiles by J P Wild 5 video link LIVE on the internet the medical instruments 8 by Ralph Jackson the strainer bowl

Monumental Roman buildings at Gosbecks Archaeological Park 10

ASDA superstore site 13 William Wire by Andrew Phillips 14

Roman wall in hotel foyer 15 Mick Aston in conversation time traveller Channel Four's Time Team professor interview with Philip Crummy 16 New data in old bones DNA research by Dr Patricia Smith 18 Mr Poulter by Dr Paul Sealey 18 Butt Road cemetery 19 Making Roman glass today by Mark Taylor and David Hill 20 — with a special offer The Rose & Crown Hotel building survey by Adam Menuge 22 Colchester at war — the WW2 defences of Colchester by Fred Nash 24 Around the county — Essex in 1997 ECC Archaeology Section 26 Coastal artillery battery Cressing temple Essex place-names project Hylands House Colchester Archaeological Trust Secret basin

Archaeology for young people 30 'Looking underfoot by Mike Corbishley the Friends of the Trust 32

Victorious Olympus 33

New Roman toy? 34 the stacking counters

1 'treasure trove'

City of Victory Colchester's latest history book is proving to be a local best-seller. Published in February 1997, the Trust's City of Victory has been selling well ever since, with more than 2000 copies sold in the first six months, including all the hard back copies. It is even to be published in audio-cassette form by the Royal National Institute for the Blind.

Rare find This very rare brightly-coloured brooch was recently excavated near the Lexden Road. It is a The Trust goes Roman enamelled plate brooch commercial in the form of an amphora. It is In 1997 in good condition apart from The Archaeological City of Victory missing one of its handles. It Trust now has to was also awarded a dates to the 2nd century AD. operate in a wholly grant by the Friends of Open days The brooch lay in a pit which commercial way, Historic Essex, for which The Trust digs at Stanway and Gosbecks had been dug on the south side sometimes compet- the Trust would like to were open to the public throughout the of the main road leading west­ ing on a cost basis thank the FHE. summer, and at Stanway the Trust played wards from the Roman town. with other archae- host to the public on three special days, the The excavation is being carried ological units. The August Bank holiday and the two days of out by the Colchester Archae­ Trust was founded National Archaeology weekend (the Sunday ological Group in conjunction as the Colchester was also the last day of the Stanway dig). with the Colchester Archae­ Excavation Com- It's a gift Members of the public showed a great deal ological Trust. mittee over thirty A digger-driver found a complete of interest in the site and in archaeology, as years ago to carry Roman cremation pot (below) well as in the history of Colchester generally. out archaeological while working at the former Royal Visitors were able to pick up printed infor­ digs in Colchester, and like other organisations of Observer Corps premises in mation on how to get involved in archae­ its kind elsewhere, it received some financial su- Lexden. He kindly handed it in to ology, purchase Trust and other publica­ port for its core costs from the local authority. the Trust in 1997, with its cremat­ tions, try their hand at pot washing (picture However, this support ended on April 1st 1997, ed bone still inside. above), and handle actual finds like parts of and the Trust now relies for most of its finances a Roman column from Gosbecks, or the on contracts from developers for archaeological complete cremation pot (left), tesserae, and investigations required for planning consent. pottery, as well as go on a guided tour of the site and see the slide presentation. Roman soldiers were on hand to keep order.

Over the National Archaeology weekend, the centrepiece in the site marquee consist­ ed of two computers, one displaying the live video being transmitted on the internet and the other for the public to explore the Web site and some 3-D modelling, and to find out about the site on-line.

The Trust also had a stall at the Essex History Fair at Harwich in June, where we had a small display about the history of Colchester and sold City of Victory and past issues of the magazine. We really enjoyed discussing the See the inside back cover work of the Trust and the Stanway site and its for the craftsmen involved. finds with visitors. We handed out our Web address slips till there were none left!

New sites A 2,000-year old occupation site has been found near North Station in the form of a large com­ plex of ditches and pits. It was discovered as a result of trial trenching along the line of the pro­ posed new northern approach road. Similar operations at the former Maternity Hospital in Lexden uncovered parts of a Roman occupation site, while near Birch, field-walking — which involves systematically searching ploughed fields — has revealed the site of a Roman villa.

2 small projects 1997

Ancient tidemill The ancient mill at Fingringhoe has been con­ verted into homes. It was bought in 1997 for conversion by Lexden Restorations Ltd, who then commissioned the Trust to make a photographic record of the buildings and the surviving machin­ ery before the work began. Long-lost temple There has been a mill at Fingringhoe since at Colchester can boast an exceptionally high num­ least 1531, when there is a record of a judicial ber of Roman temples. Our knowledge of one of At the judgement on the 'mill newly built by Richard these — on the site of St Mary's hospital — is lim­ theatre Whyter and Robert Cooper'. The power of the ited to a tiny sketch plan, drawn about 80 years In advance of a mill derived not from the wind or the downward ago, and which is possibly a copy of an even older major alter­ flow of a river, but from the ebb and flow of tides plan made in 1836-7 during the construction of ation, a small reaching up the lower part of the Roman River. the Union workhouse on this site. The building in excavation was The surviving building is a hotchpotch of the sketch is identifiable as a temple because of its carried out by additions and alterations (picture below). The distinctive square-within-a-square plan. A recent the Trust at the oldest part is a timber-framed building which archaeological investigation by the Trust was too Mercury Theatre. In the shadow of its tower, once contained the wheel, whereas the most restricted to reveal details such as plan and date, the team dug out twelve shafts — shoring substantial addition is the brick mill which was but it did show that the remains of a substantial some up (pictures above) — and worked their built in about 1893 for flour production, powered building do indeed exist at the place indicated on way down for about two metres or more. at first by steam and later by diesel engine. The the sketch. They found an almost complete vessel con­ first of the mill's towering silos dates from about The discovery was part of a limited investiga­ taining bone, part of a mosaic pavement, part 1933, but it had to be replaced after five years tion (for clients Wyncote Developments) on the of the foundation of a barrack block from the when fuel oil caught fire and the silo was site of the former St Mary's hospital which is due Roman fortress, and the set of remarkable destroyed. The wheel of the tidemill was last for redevelopment. The investigation was to estab­ stacking counters (see back cover). This excava­ used in 1942, by which time the whole operation lish what archaeological remains survive on the tion was funded by the Mercury Theatre. had gone electric. Despite the successive mod­ site, and how they will be affected by the proposed ernisations inside, the mill was still being serviced building work. Other remains included a Roman burial (indicating the presence of a cemetery; see Ground radar by sailing barges as late as 1978. (Copies of the survey can be consulted in the pictures above) and the remains of Roman buildings Some of the most interesting archaeological Colchester branch of the Essex Record Office destroyed during the Boudican revolt. A full-scale remains in Colchester lie under the High Street. and at Colchester Museum.) dig on parts of the site seems likely. This makes them inaccessible yet very vulnerable to damage whenever a new service is laid along the street. The Trust routinely uses geophysical techniques such as resistivity and magnetometry for archaeological survey in Colchester, with the help of Peter Cott, but they are unsuitable for places like the High Street which are covered with hard surfaces and which have a lot of metal in the vicinity. Instead, an experiment was carried out to test the effectiveness of ground radar by trying to detect the foundations of St Runwald's Church. The church stood in the High Street until its demolition in 1878. Its plan and alignment are of particular interest because of their possible rela­ tionships with underlying Roman remains. The survey had to be carried out across the Roman pottery shop full width of the High Street and this meant lay­ Jacklin's in the High Street was one of the most colourful shops in Colchester, and the appeal of tea ing tapes across the road and repeatedly cross­ and cakes in the tea-room upstairs ensured long custom from former Trust chairman Hugh Thomson ing it with the radar machine and its trailing of London. Remarkable remains of a Roman pottery shop were discovered when Jacklin's was being cobles (picture left). The work had to be done built in 1927. In one small area, trenches cut through the remains of stacks of pottery and glass which between about five and nine o'clock one Sunday had collapsed as the shop went up in flames during the Boudican revolt. Whole glass vessels had fused morning in the middle of summer to take advan­ into shapeless lumps, while molten glass had trickled down over piles of discoloured pottery vessels tage of the daylight and the least traffic. In the below. Clearly hundreds of vessels must have been destroyed in the fire. It was an extraordinary dis­ end, drivers were very understanding and all covery, and one which makes this one of the most important sites in Colchester. went well. Jacklin's closed in 1997 and substantial alterations were carried out to the building for its amal­ The final results of the survey are not yet gamation with William's and Griffin's store. The building works were designed to minimise ground dis­ available but early indications were not encour­ turbance and thus help preserve the surviving below-ground remains of the Roman pottery shop. Some aging. It looks as if the shovel and trowel are still holes were unavoidable, and these were dug under archaeological supervision (picture above right). the archaeologists' only truly effective tools, at The holes were not deep enough to reach the remains of the pottery shop, but they produced about least as far as the High Street is concerned. thirty pieces of burnt pottery which must come from it. End of the Stanway dig

Origins of the site The Stanway site started off, not as a funerary site, but as a farmstead. This would have taken the form of at least one round house inside a farmyard Above: the fragment of saw. enclosed by a bank and ditch (our Right: the tiny pot. It is a proper fired ceramic Enclosure 2). The ditch was probably vessel, in miniature. not defensive but would have been dug to confine animals and protect them from predators. The farmstead seems to date from the around the 2nd cen­ tury BC. Unfortunately no traces of any Another indication of the unusual round houses survived because of the nature of the site was the 1996 discov­ effects of modern deep ploughing, but ery in the enclosure ditch of a pair of there were some finds and some dis­ 'currency bars'. Over 1,500 objects of tinctive features which only occurred this kind have been found in Britain. inside this enclosure. These show it to They occur mainly in a band extending have been functionally different to the from the southern Midlands, south­ other enclosures here. The finds wards to the south coast. The pair include many fragments of loom- found at Stanway are the only weights and the features include three examples known from Essex, so they large pits. The loomweights show that underline the special nature of the site. weaving took place in this area, and Currency bars are made of iron, and the pits are similar to examples found occur in three main forms, namely in farmsteads elsewhere which are sword-shaped, spit-shaped, and plough­ thought to have been used for the stor­ share. The Stanway currency bars are the currency bars age of foodstuffs, especially grain. of a rarer type. found in 1996

Right: plan of the Stanway site — the excavation of Enclosures 2 and 5 was completed in 1997.

Below: the three Pstorage pits. Opposite above: the 'small' grave excavated in September 1997. Opposite below: the deep ritual shaft (with timber shoring) being excavated by Nigel Rayner.

4 likely that items like these would sur­ and clothing to match vive. Our shaft was comparatively shal­ low (only about 3.5 m deep). Being dug through soft sand and gravel by John Peter Wild means that it would collapse if left of the Manchester Ancient Textile Unit open for any time. There were strange little indentations in the sides as if they Traces of textile were found in the had been lined or supported in some "doctor's' grave — the Trust asked J P way with wood. The shaft had to be Wild to investigate... shored up for its excavation. The summer of 1997 saw the dis­ In such a well-furnished grave one covery of the last grave from Stanway would expect to find that the 'doctor' (the 'small' grave — see the video had also been provided with appropri­ sequence on the next page). Com­ ately high-quality clothing for his jour­ pared with other graves from the site, ney into the after-life. So it proved to be: Funerary enclosure its contents were modest, consisting of but only the most minute scraps survive, Although Enclosure 5 was the focus of a bowl and a pot containing cremated either fossilised ('mineral replaced') by the 1996 excavations, there was still bones. Curiously, the bowl lay in two the corrosion products leaching from much to be done in 1997. Parts of the pieces a short distance from the pot. the iron instruments or as actual textile interior of Enclosure 5 had to be Two explanations are possible. Either in contact with bronze implements, the checked for graves and structural fea­ the bowl was deliberately broken at the copper from which had poisoned all tures such as post holes, and both the time of the burial as part of the burial local bacteria. chamber-pit and the presumed ritual rite, or else it had been placed upside The mourners had placed in the shaft had to be finished off. The 'ritual down on the top of the pot to make a great wooden chest, next to the gaming shaft' was in the extreme south-west lid which then got knocked off when board and surgical kit, an eye-catching corner of the enclosure. Features of the grave was backfilled. wool cloak or blanket. Technically this sort have been found on other pre­ This year, the diggers cleared the speaking, it was a 2/2 plain (or perhaps historic and Roman sites where in site, excavated sections across the en­ diamond) twill of fine to medium weight some cases they contain gory objects closure ditches and excavated other — a light tweed, in other words. Fabrics such as human or animal heads and features in both Enclosures 5 and 2. of this type are already known from traces of blood. Nothing like this was When the site was looking its best, at two other graves at Stanway (the found in the Stanway shaft, although the end of the summer, Edward Clack 'brooches' grave in Enclosure 5, found soil conditions are such that it is not kindly took some aerial photographs. in 1996, and the 'warrior's' grave in Enclosure 3, found in 1992).

Another fragment of diamond twill, though coar­ ser, was found in the remains of the destroyed early colonial buildings at Lion Walk in Colchester in 1972, part of a wool mattress cover burnt in Boudica's destruction of Colchester in AD 60/1. Indeed, dia­ mond twill was the preferred weave throughout the Roman North, although it was already coming into fashion before the Roman conquest. To our surprise, under the microscope, the warp (the vertical thread system) in our new Stanway fragment appeared purple, while the weft was buff and apparently undyed. This curious combination suggests that perhaps the textile once had a purple check pattern — with squares or rectangles of solid purple, pure white, and half-and- half, by turns. Such checks (scutulata) were regarded by the Romans as being typically Celtic. Too little purple yarn survives for analysis, so we can­ not say at present whether the wool was dyed with Tyrian (mollusc) purple or a native lichen or madder- on-woad, a well-known ancient pseudo-purple. Tyrian purple yarn spun from wool dyed with a Mediterranean murex whelk is a great rarity in the Roman North, and if the 'doctor's' grave fragments are Tyrian, then this textile would be without known parallel from such an early date this far north in the Roman Empire. What is certain is that purple of whatever sort was a very Roman luxury, and one which highlights the Stanway 'doctor's' high stand­ ing in his community.

Inset: two diagrams of plain 2/2 twill showing its slanting structure. The future Live video link Stanway LIVE on the internet Although the excavation at Stanway The Trust put more effort than ever before into finished in September 1997, there is still encouraging members of the public to visit the much to do. There is a final excavation Stanway excavations this summer. And for those report to be written, and before this can who could not see it in person, there was always be done, more analytical work must be the option of a 'virtual' visit, courtesy of BT and carried out on the finds, such as analy­ the University of Essex, on the Trust's Stanway sis of organic remains and soil samples. Web site on the internet. Visitors to the Web site The post-excavation process is likely to logged on as far afield as Canada, the United be a lengthy one and will involve input States, and Africa. from various specialists. Depending on The Trust's Web site on the internet allowed funding, it will therefore probably take you to not only follow progress on a daily basis, some years before the definitive report with the site diary, but also watch discoveries can be produced. As well as a technical being made as they happened via a live video report, the Trust hopes to be able to link with the excavation. Like almost everything produce a more 'popular' account that else these days, archaeology is getting on to the would appeal to a wider readership. World Wide Web from all over the world and at Again, it will be some time before this a rapidly expanding rate. However, as far as we can be published because the specialist are aware, this is the first time that an archae­ and other work must be completed first. ological excavation has been 'live' on the inter­ Meanwhile, many of the more inter­ net. esting finds have already been on pub­ The Web site includes a site map where you lic view. Objects from Stanway made a can click on features such as the 'doctor's' grave fine temporary display in the Castle for further information and pictures of artefacts. Museum over the summer of 1997. The With the end of the dig, the live link has been exhibition included the most interesting terminated, but you can still access sequences finds from the whole excavation, not of video frames in a stored video section. The just the latest material. (The 1997 finds site diary is still available as well as details of the included an almost complete pot exca­ background of the site and sections about the vated 'live' on the last day, a tiny pot, Trust and its publications, and sponsors. part of an iron saw, quernstone frag­ BT generously installed an ISDN telephone ments, Iron Age pottery sherds, and the line across the field to the site cabin and provid­ two vessels from the 'small' grave.) ed free connection throughout the summer. The Later in 1997, the objects from the University of Essex hosts the Trust Web site, and 'doctor's' grave were exhibited with staff of the Department of Electronic Systems some of the Trust replicas in the new Engineering set it up and installed the camera Weston gallery of Roman Britain at the on site along with all the necessary computer British Museum. (They are on view equipment and software (which was funded by there until the end of February 1997.) It Tarmac Quarry Products Ltd). is hoped that ultimately the finds will be Video was transmitted in the form of a single put on permanent display in Colchester frame every 30 seconds or so; more frames Museum, and that the exhibition will could have been sent, so that the sequence was feature reconstructions of the 'doctor's' faster, but the rate was set to accommodate the grave and the 'warrior's' grave. These slowest modems that people use. The stored promise to be a spectacular sight. sequences have proved to be very valuable, and An interesting event took place at the also provide an unusual digitised record of the site and dig. Also linked to the Trust Web site is site after the end of the dig. Being on an example of 3-D modelling (the Roman an ancient ritual site, an alternative reli­ Temple of Claudius at Colchester) by the VASE gion group was permitted to hold an laboratory at the University of Essex. informal ceremony there! The address of the Trust's Web site is The 1997 dig was supervised by Steve http://peipa.essex.ac.uk/cat/. The Web site will Benfield with the help of Simon Garrod. be maintained indefinitely and also updated to allow visitors to track the progress of the post- Colchester Archaeological Trust excavation analysis, especially the work done by specialists on the finds.

The Trust is greatly indebted to BT for the ISDN line and technical support necessary for setting up and maintaining the live link to the internet, and grateful to Dr Adrian Clark, Dr Christine Clark, Dr Tim Dennis, Graham Sweeney and Eddie Capstick at the University of Essex for making the Web site and the video link happen.

Left: sequence from the live transmission now in the video store — from September 04, 15:53:17-15:58:14; Nicky Lingwood and John Mabbitt excavating the 'small' grave. Right: the same scene recorded on a stills camera (with the video camera in shot!). The medical instruments The Trust would like to thank Excavations at Stanway finally finished Tarmac Quarry Products Ltd for in the summer of 1997. However, work funding this year's excavations at during the previous winter had been Stanway, for all their help in kind, very productive. It was suspected that and for the warm support provided some objects lying on the gaming board by the staff based in Colchester and were medical, but it was not until they elsewhere. were lifted, cleaned, and x-rayed that The Trust is also grateful to Essex positive identification was possible. This County Council for its grant. was a very exciting discovery, not only The Trust wishes to acknowledge because medical kits are very rare in Above: aerial view of Enclosure 5 under excava­ here the contribution of all its volun­ Britain (in fact there is only the one tion (photo, by Edward Clack) teer workers at Stanway, in 1997 other example, and that is problemat­ Below: the Stanway site on the ground in 1997, and in previous years — without ic), but also because the presence of with the north-west corner of Enclosure 5, show­ them, none of the excavations would the instruments suggests that the dead ing sections across the ditch, the entrance and have been possible. person had been a doctor. features inside it. (The diggers are on tea break!) Eventually thirteen instruments were identified, including scalpels, hooks, needles, forceps, and a saw. A thir­ teenth instrument was too corroded to identify, but all the others were well pre­ served enough for the Trust to have replicas made of them. The instruments had been placed on the gaming board, next to the doctor's cremated remains which had likewise been placed on the board. All the instruments were intact, except for the saw which lay broken in five pieces. In addition to these thirteen instru­ ments, the kit is likely to have contained items made of organic materials which have not survived. The missing items would have included dressings and ban­ dages, and instruments made of wood, reed, feathers, and textile. Read on for a detailed look at these extraordinary objects. Web site http://peipa.essex.ac.uk/cat

Explore the Stanway site yourself — on the internet!

This is what you can see on the Trust's Web site. For Stanway, the site plan above will be on screen. You can click your cursor on this, for ex­ ample on the 'doctor's' grave, and this will take you to a plan of the grave (right). If you click on this, on an object, this will take you to some text and a photo, of the object, eg the gaming board in situ. 7 8 Early surgical kit

..all instruments ought to be well from Stanway suited for the purpose in hand as regards their size, weight, and — the extraordinary delicacy.. [Hippocrates i.58] 2,000-year old gaming board had mportant find an even more rather idiosyncratic appear­ form but the terminal exten­ The importance of the med- ance may be explained in sion loop is not. Moreover, cal kit from Stanway is extraordinary set of part by the fact that they the outsplayed form of the aIready clear. Buried in the surgical instru- were made in Britain, and in double sharp hook (if that is AD 50s, it is not only the ear- part, too, by their early date. what it is) is at present with­ liest identifiable set of surgi- ments laid on top It was only around the turn out parallel. cal instruments from Britain of it — of the 1st century BC/1st Nevertheless, the range of but also one of the earliest century AD that Roman instruments is closely similar from anywhere in the ancient instruments began to acquire to that of the basic metal world. There is little doubt Ralph Jackson reveals all.. their relatively standardised instrumentaria or core kits of that the man buried with it form. the Roman world. This ver­ had been a medical practi- sion of an instrumentarium tioner, and the location and Their overall similarity to The instruments comprises a complete set of form of his burial imply that contemporary sets of instru- It is notable that single-piece the essential tools of ancient his patients were members ments from other parts of iron instruments predomi­ surgery: scalpels, sharp and of the local tribal nobility. the Roman empire suggest nate in the Stanway kit, blunt hooks, spring forceps, contact with Roman medical which contrasts with the handled needles, a scoop He, too, was more probably a native Briton than a personnel and, presumably, Roman preference for single- probe, and a surgical saw. Whe­ Roman newcomer, and the an acquaintance with the piece bronze instruments or ther treating battle wounds, surgical instruments shed a precepts of classical medi- composite bronze and iron accidental injuries or dis­ little light on his origins. cine. Indeed, one instrument instruments. Thus, the blade ease, these instruments would — the slender bronze scoop shapes of the two iron scal­ have enabled the Stanway Drobe or cyathiscomele — pels mirror those of Roman healer to perform a very wide was probably a Roman examples, but their integral range of surgical interven­ import. All the rest, how- iron handles are exceptional. tions, for example, cutting ever, differ subtly from Similarly, the jaws of the and excising, retracting, seiz­ Roman types, and their bronze forceps are Roman in ing, extracting, dissecting,

Left: the puzzling double sharp hook from Stanway.

Right: a small Roman instru- mentarium. The instruments are bronze and comprise, from left to right: scalpel handle (lacking its iron blade), smooth-jawed fix­ ation forceps combined with a curette, toothed fixation forceps with sliding lock ring, sharp hook, needle probe, double- ended probe, and a combined lever/rasp and hooked dissector. (Photo. © British Museum) 9 perforating, probing and frequent enough to make it cauterizing as necessary. viable. In any case, while The operations could have surgery might usually be Monumental included bone surgery, ton­ regarded as a last resort, sillectomy (the removal of there would have been tonsils), the treatment of many occasions when there Roman buildings varicose veins, and fine eye was no alternative, for ex­ operations, perhaps even ample, with battle wounds. the couching of a catarac- On the positive side, the tous lens. Stanway kit, like Roman Like his Roman contem­ instrumentaria, comprises poraries, the Stanway healer tools which are both care­ would have had knowledge fully designed and precisely Digging out a ditch may not seem of medicinal plants. For sur­ manufactured. The level of the most enticing of projects, but gical treatment of the tribal craftmanship compares fav­ elite he may well have used ourably with that of instru­ the great temple ditch in the herbal sedatives and pain­ ments of all later periods, so killers, such as those decoct­ if surgery had to be under­ Gosbecks Archaeological Park ed from henbane, white taken then the Stanway is a different matter altogether... mandrake and the opium healer could at least have poppy, all of which were had confidence in his known to the Romans. But equipment. these mild anaesthetics are unlikely to have been widely and generally available, and surgery was always a painful Ralph Jackson is an expert experience. It was also life in ancient medical instru­ endangering, for the impor­ ments and practice in the tance of sterile instruments Department of Prehistoric was not appreciated, and and Romano-British Antiq­ such antiseptic substances uities at the British Museum, as were used, such as pitch, and he is the author of turpentine and red wine, Doctors and diseases in lacked the strength of their the Roman empire (first modern counterparts. Post­ published in 1988 and re­ operative infection was thus printed in 1991). a major hazard and another real disincentive to surgery, Top right: this aerial view of the especially internal opera­ The strainer bowl from the 'doctor's' grave temple site at Gosbecks was taken tions, and it must often have The vessel is like a lidless teapot, since it has a finely- in the summer of 1997, and you been the cause of death or perforated strainer plate behind the spout. Two hands were can see the excavation trenches of limb amputations follow­ needed to use the vessel, one to lift the handle and the (the temple and portico outlines ing gangrene. Nevertheless, other to support the underside of the spout. If the bowl are marked out on the ground in although recovery must contained boiling liquid, then it would have been too hot white lines). always have been jeopar­ to hold (especially the spout) without a protective cloth. (Photo, by Edward Clack) dised by the use of unsterile Vessels of this sort were thought to have been used for instruments, a sufficiently straining wine, but now drinks such as ale, mead or tea­ Above: the fragment of floral successful outcome to surgi­ like infusions are considered more likely. The discovery of mosaic glass found in 1997 in the cal treatment was evidently this bowl, associated with medical instruments, makes temple ditch at Gosbecks. It is medicinal drugs a made of bright turquoise blue slight possibility. The glass, with daisy-like flowers with answer may come yellow petals and orange centres. from a small plug of organic-like material found inside the Below: a sketch of Colin 'Indiana' spout. Unfortunately, Austin, supervisor of the dig at results from an in­ Gosbecks in 1997. spection with a scan­ ning electron micro­ scope were disap­ pointing, so our hopes are now pinned on pollen analysis of this material. Silversmith Mark Munson made the replica (left) as accurately as possible by using casts of the original spout, handle, and feet, as the strainer bowl itself was crushed flat in the ground.

10 stood inside a precinct. Often these were walled, but here it was the ditch which defined the limits of the precinct. The portico was a covered, colonnaded walk­ way of monumental propor­ tions, which was built around all four sides of the ditched precinct. The fact that the ditch had no bank meant that people in the portico could look out between the columns into the precinct, but were physi­ cally prevented from going Great ditch into it by the ditch. The great ditch which enclosed the For a long time, archaeologists sup­ temple at Gosbecks is proving to be a posed that the ditch not only pre-dated source of much new and important the temple and portico, but that it was Five Iron Age coins found at Gosbecks. information about Gosbecks in Roman pre-Roman and marked out an area times. A two-metre wide slice (section) which had been sacred to the Britons. was dug through the fill of the ditch Certainly it is now clear that the ditch is during the summers of 1996 and 1997 on a slightly different alignment to the to great effect. Not only did it show portico which, although not proof that what a substantial feature the ditch the ditch was pre-Roman, suggests that had been, but the section also provided the two were probably not part of the much new information about the same building scheme. We might sup­ appearance of the adjacent temple and pose that if the ditch was pre-Roman, the colonnaded walkway (portico), as then we would find pre-Roman objects well as how long they were in use in the bottom of it. This did not hap­ before being demolished. pen. In fact the earliest material in the The excavations were carried out as ditch is very interesting, but it is early part of a three-year programme to Roman in date. It includes pieces of recover the plans of the temple and the broken-up whole pots and animal portico, which is bound up with propos­ bone, particularly parts of pig heads, als to build a multi-million pound inter­ which must have been products of ritu­ pretation centre on the site. A similar al pagan practices within the ditched section was dug across the ditch about area in the early Roman times. sixty years ago, but the records of this However, five Iron Age coins were also work are poor, and of course excava­ found in the ditch. These are all pre- tion techniques have improved consid­ Roman, and five is a surprisingly high erably since then, making investiga­ number given how little Iron Age pot­ tions of this kind far more productive. tery came from the ditch. Although the The ditch proved to be an impressive coins were scattered throughout the fill 3.8 m (12.5 ft) deep. It was V-shaped, of the ditch and thus in Roman layers, with no evidence of there having been their presence does suggest significant a bank. It enclosed an area of about activity in the immediate vicinity in pre- 40 m (131 ft) square, with the temple Roman times. The ditch therefore may in the south-east corner. The ditch was be pre-Roman in origin after all, and continuous except for an entrance in may have been simply cleaned out or the middle of the east side. Pagan cult deepened in the early Roman period. practices normally took place out of Alternatively it may have enclosed an doors, so buildings of this type usually area which was already special to Above: at work in the trench across the great the Britons before temple ditch at Gosbecks. the arrival of the Below: volunteer Johanna Burstrom cleaning up Romans, but had a fragment from one of the columns (left). been defined on the ground in some other way.

Right: temple column fragment The temple in the ground. The recent excava­ Columns were tions also included made of tile and two trenches across surfaced with the site of the Rom­ plaster — here an temple. Before you can see the these were dug, our tiles forming the knowledge of the curve of the building came from column. aerial photographs.

11 These reveal the distinctive square- which was sufficiently mature to within-a-square plan, which shows that produce fruits and nuts, and that there the building was the type of temple was an accumulation of debris on the known as Romano-Celtic, where a cen­ ground which was charred during acci­ tral square room is surrounded by a dental fires. The food debris is intrigu­ covered walkway (ambulatory). The ing because it hints at domestic occu­ excavations indicate that the temple pation nearby, and there is no other was not quite square (measuring about evidence for this at such a late date in 13.4 x 13.9 m) and probably faced the Gosbecks area. northwards. It seems to have had six columns along each side, making a Monumental colonnaded walkway total of 20 columns in all. Parts of at The easiest way to get an accurate least one of these columns were found ground plan of the portico is to uncov­ in the fill of the ditch, and the pieces er large parts of it. However, excava­ show that the columns were more than tions on this scale would be expensive, 0.6 m (1.9 ft) in diameter and well over even with the help of volunteers; they 6 m (19.7 ft) in height, including bases Above: one possible design of the temple. would also damage the surviving and capitals. The square room which archaeological remains no matter how Below: ground plan of the temple, with the forms the centre of the building would carefully the work was done. Therefore 1995 and 1996 trenches. have been a shrine where, presumably, the excavations were limited to the cor­ there was a large statue of the god who ners of the portico, and the trenches was worshipped there, Mars or were made as small as possible. This Mercury. The walls of this room were was done by setting them out after the wider than normal, suggesting that the positions of the portico corners had room may have been in the form of a been located by geophysical survey low tower, although it is possible that with a magnetometer. This technique is the building had a single pitched roof, good enough to find the corners but giving it a more orthodox classical not sensitive enough to produce the appearance. required plan. The middle and upper parts of the The portico was built on three par­ fill of the great ditch contained parts of allel foundations which continued the superstructures of the temple and around all four sides of the ditched the portico. The column fragments precinct, except for an entrance in the already mentioned were mixed in with middle of the east side. It seems likely large amounts of rubble which derived that the central and inner foundations from the demolition and robbing of the each carried a colonnade, and that the temple for building materials. Christi­ outer foundation supported a solid wall anity spread rapidly throughout the which rose to the eaves. Roman empire with the conversion of We also discovered that the three the emperor Constantine the Great in foundations were of different widths. the early 4th century. However, pagan­ stood. It is also lower down in the ditch This in itself would not be a problem, ism persisted for a long time despite backfill, suggesting that the portico was except that each foundation varied in the destruction of many pagan temples in ruins for some time before the tem­ width from corner to corner. Moreover, and the conversion of others for ple was demolished. Unlike the temple the plan of the portico was slightly off Christian use. It is therefore interesting debris, this material from the portico is square, because it had not been laid to note that a late 4th-century coin has mainly roof tile and painted plaster, as out very accurately! Unfortunately all been found in the rubble if the building had been made entirely this means that it is not possible to pro­ — the coin shows that the of timber and plaster up to roof level duce a plan of the portico without more Gosbecks temple was still (although this seems unlikely). The excavations. Nevertheless, we can tell standing until at least that high proportion of roof tile in the debris that each side of the outer wall of the date. Perhaps its destruc­ suggests that the structure was aban­ portico was a massive 98 m in length, tion was indirectly brought doned and left to become derelict and the building must have incorporat­ about by the emperor rather than demolished all at once. ed about 250 columns, each one — Theodosius I who, as a This conclusion is supported by charred like those forming the temple facade — devout Christian, banned material among the debris. We thought over 0.6 m (1.9 ft) wide and 6 m all forms of pagan religion this was the remains of structural tim­ (19.7 ft) high. In theory, it should be in the Roman empire in AD bers, but microscopic examination by possible to work out the exact number 391 (and consequently re­ environmentalist Peter Murphy reveals of columns that this monumental struc­ ceived the title 'the Great'). it has the appearance of charred wood­ ture contained, although how much of Destruction debris from land litter. Its main component is it will need to be uncovered to do this is the temple forms a distinc­ charred twiggy wood with fragments of a difficult question. tive group of layers in the acorns, but the list of other organic upper backfill of the ditch. remains is impressive: ash, bramble, The rubble is concentrated elder and probably hazel and wild The excavation was funded by on the inner side of the cherry, cereal grains, mollusc shells, Colchester Borough Council, and the ditch, near where the tem­ insect remains, small mammal/amph­ excavation was supervised by Colin ple stood. Building rubble ibian bones, and the seeds and fruits of Austin. from the portico is distin­ wild flowers and other plants. It is hard For more information on the guishable in the ditch fill to explain the presence of material of Stanway and Gosbecks sites, see the because it is concentrated this kind, unless we assume that when Trust's book City of Victory. on the other side of the the portico was derelict, the area ditch, where the portico became overgrown with woodland Colchester Archaeological Trust 12 Other findings To the east of the burials lay ASDA superstore site a previously unknown north- south Roman road, the Archaeological excavations on the site of the ASDA Careful machine stripping lower layers of which were superstore at Turner Rise in Colchester, funded by ASDA and trenching was necessary quite well preserved. The to find them. In about 20 cemetery lay on the west side of the road, and fronted The extensive redevelop­ made on the adjacent site of examples, the cremated on to it. ment on the north side of the railway embankment, bone had been buried in a Wire noted in his diary Colchester on Turner Rise where the Victorian amateur pottery vessel, but there was that a Roman kiln had been near North Station, includ­ archaeologist William Wire also a surprising variety of discovered during excava­ ing the new ASDA super­ recorded several Roman other forms of burial, rang­ tions for clay near the brick store, led to rescue excava­ burials in the 1840s, during ing from small pits with only kilns east of the station. This tions in the winter of the building of the railway. bone, to pits containing the would place it about 250 1996/97 by the Colchester These included two burials in remains of wooden caskets yards east of the cemetery. Archaeological Trust — amphoras, one containing with iron fittings, and large The kiln was here because of sometimes in the snow! — six glass vessels. Later, in the regularly-shaped pits each the clay, and there must which revealed a large 1920s, over 30 burials were containing as many as five have been similar Roman Roman cremation cemetery. found in clay pits just to the vessels. Other grave goods in­ kilns in the area which have south of the railway line. cluded copper-alloy brooches, not been found or recorded. Roman cemetery Then, between November discs of worked bone, pottery Thus the discovery of the The existence of a Roman 1996 and February 1997, lamp fragments, and a minia­ road clarifies the layout of burial ground in the vicinity our work on the ASDA site ture ?pewter vessel. In most the area in the Roman peri­ of North Station has been showed that this same cem­ graves, the cremated bone od. We can now see that the known for many years, al­ etery had extended north of was distributed throughout cemetery was on one side of though recent archaeologi­ the site of the railway and the fill as though it had been the road, with pottery work­ cal investigations ahead of that it probably contained scattered into the grave as it ing on the other. the building of the new hundreds of burials. was backfilled. ASDA superstore provided The burials can be broad­ The low quality of some of the pots from the cemetery is us with the first opportunity Work in 1996/7 ly dated from the late 1st to interesting. Some may be to explore the cemetery in This recent work shows that the 3rd centuries, and form unsaleable products from detail in modern times. The the burials were loosely part of Roman Colchester's the nearby kilns. The grave earliest-known archaeological strung out from north to south, northern cemetery area. This goods here are so poor that discoveries from here were in small irregular clusters. was possibly associated with a Roman suburb (known this must have been the bur­ from earlier discoveries) ial place of a relatively poor which was situated north of section of the town's Roman the river in an area around community. The nearby pot­ what is now the Victoria Inn tery kilns suggest that pottery in North Station Road. workers were buried here. Many cremation vessels More interestingly, it also have been collected in Col­ suggests that such people chester, mainly by antiquari­ were poor compared with ans in the last century, but the typical person buried this is the first time that a close to the town centre. Roman cremation cemetery This is of great interest be­ has been excavated and re­ cause it is rare for archae­ corded in detail in the town. ological discoveries in Col­ In the past, detailed records chester to provide such clear were not made and many indications of the marked finds were not kept, especial­ social divisions which existed ly such things as bone, nails at that time. and other small objects. We also found a 19th- However, at this site, we century brick kiln (presum­ have now recovered a lot of ably one of those referred to information relating to such by Wire) and clay pits near­ topics as burial rite and by. Industrial remains such cemetery organisation. Fur­ as these are also of interest, ther analysis of the bone and since they are rarely record­ the pottery will produce even ed and yet provide evidence more data about the popula­ of important local industries tion of the Roman town and of the more recent past. use of the cemetery. by Don Shimmin William Wire (1804-1857) Above all, from 1842 until his death in 1857, Wire kept a detailed record in diary form The postman's tale of all his archaeological findings in the town, Colchester's first archaeologist helps with the and these constitute essential sources for all ASDA site subsequent archae-ology. Not only did he use archaeological techniques, and scrupulously William Wire qualifies as Colchester's first record the site of any findings, their condition, archaeologist. While previous antiquarians like context and (sometimes) their stratigraphy, but Stukeley or Morant wrote history largely based drawings in his diary make clear details which on written sources, it was 100 years later that are invaluable for archaeologists today. It has the extraordinary Wire systematically investi­ been suggested that similar standards of gated and recorded Colchester's buried archaeological recording are not found locally archaeological remains — and quite a lot were until the 1920s. He had much to record. In being uncovered and destroyed in his day. 1842/3 the railway arrived in Colchester and William Wire was from an old Colchester Wire, as well as making regular visits to its con­ family: weavers, freemen of the borough and struction sites (for which the chief engineer sturdy Radicals in politics. William was born in gave him a pass), also had a network of con­ Colchester and apprenticed in London as a tacts who would tell labourers to "take that to clockmaker; he returned to Colchester in Mr Wire". Wire bought and sold antiquities on 1828. Here he became active in the Liberal\Radical cause a semi-regular basis in his shop, as well as adding to his own during a period of unusual political excitement in our histo­ considerable private collection; his reputation ensured that ry. He organised its poorer supporters into an Independent most local archaeological finds came to his notice. The Radical Club, thereby anticipating the Chartist movement; Trust's ASDA site includes some of the area of Wire's study his Colchester Working Men's Association became a local of the works for North Station and the railway cutting. Wire's Chartist Branch. discoveries here included the amphora containing six glass Wire increasingly withdrew from active politics after 1839 vessels. as Chartism became more militant; there was some local Wire also made regular records as a new sewer system persecution of Radicals, and Wire, with poor health, was was installed in Colchester, as new buildings were put up, struggling to raise his large family on the profits of a retail when a local clergyman (Rev Jenkins) excavated the impor­ workshop. Despite his difficulties, Wire devoted more and tant Gosbecks temple site in 1842, and when skeletons were more time to his antiquarian interests. He was both a Latin found at the sand-pit by Butt Road. The Trust does much of and Anglo-Saxon scholar and a numismatist of national its work in Wire's footsteps and uses his records. standing, corresponding with many of the leading antiquari­ Wire died aged only 52, his last years dogged by disap­ ans of his day. He attended lectures in the town and himself pointment and illness. His great hope was to establish a presented a paper to the Society of Antiquaries in London. museum in Colchester based on his own collection; he did Wire's learning was outstanding, but local antiquarians were this in 1840, but sadly he records in his diary the progressive disposed against him because of his social class. However, selling-off of most of his coins and manuscripts to make ends 'his shop (in Church Street) was a place of resort for many meet. He took on the arduous job of a postman to survive. leading men of science and archaeology' and 'for the next In April 1857, ill with influenza, Wire nonetheless completed 25 years there passed through his hands the chief bulk of the his full round of letter delivery; he died shortly after returning coins, urns, and Roman remains found in the town...' home. He secured re-publication of the rare tract 'Colchester's Late in life William Wire was recognised as one of the Teares', which described conditions in the town during the more remarkable figures in the town despite his humble sta­ Siege of Colchester in 1648. He wrote regularly to the press tion. Today his name is better remembered than most of the and strongly argued for Colchester being Camulodunum, an luminaries of the town in his day, and rightly so — and his issue which had not then been resolved. work lives on. by Andrew Phillips

Note All Wire's thoroughness in recording these findings would be nothing if one of his sons, Alfred P. Wire, a schoolmaster and himself an active antiquarian, had not donated all his father's papers to Colchester in the safe-keeping of the Essex Archae­ ological Society (now the Essex Society for Archaeology and History).

Wire's papers are available to researchers, and a full manuscript copy of his diary can be consulted at the Colchester branch of the Essex Record Office. A large part of the diary, concentrating on items of gen­ eral interest, is reprinted in the book Essex People 1750-1900 by Arthur Brown. It's not what you'd expect — Roman wall in hotel foyer

The Trust conducted a huge urban rescue excava- tion 1971-4, during the development of the Lion Walk area into the new shopping precinct. The site contained the remains of many Roman houses and finds.

The cellar seems to have started as a timber struc- ture, with timber walls and a timber floor. Various pits were dug before the floor was laid, including two graves for babies. (It was permissible for newly-born or very young babies to be buried within the grounds of their parents' property.) The cellar seems to have been rebuilt following a fire. The replacement walls were of stone and tile and the new floor was of plain mortar. Later three pits were dug through the floor to bury votive pots; one of these contained the Part of the cellar wall as it was found at Lion Walk bones of three puppies. (now rebuilt at the Rose & Crown.) Part of a collapsed wall lay in the backfill of the cellar, showing that the room above it had been built in stone too. Most of the cellar walls were robbed for building materials in the early medieval period, but part of one wall, close to the adjacent street frontage, survived. You can see the remains of this wall in the foyer of the Rose & Crown Hotel in Colchester, carefully rebuilt almost exactly as it came out of the ground. It is a real and solid 'snapshot' of Roman Colchester. Colchester Archaeological Trust

15 Britain's favourite archae­ ologist talks to Philip Crummy Mick Aston about himself, the Time Team, and how he tries to make archaeology accessible. in the beginning... in conversation... My parents, particularly my father, used to take me round lots of castles and historic sites when I was a kid. We were coming thirty-one up and going strong back one year through Wiltshire — I We've just finished the fifth series of would have been about 15, I suppose the Time Team, so we've made 31 — and we called in to see Stone- programmes counting the live week­ henge, which was shut. But with the end, and a pilot we made in 1982. light going down behind it, it was very Eight are going out in January and impressive. My father said, oh, you February 1998, and then the plan at should read Atkinson's book on the moment is to make at least 13 Stonehenge, which I did. And then I next year, with an option on a poss­ began to go round looking at sites in ible 13 for the two years after that. the local area myself. Later I went to The Time Team was thought up by university at Birmingham to study me and the producer Tim Taylor, geography, and then I found I could and it came about when we were do archaeology as a subsidiary sub­ making four half-hour programmes ject, and so I gradually drifted into for Channel Four called 'Time's archaeology... Signs'. It took many years to con­ vince Channel Four to risk the and the day job money on it, because archaeology I'm Professor of Landscape Archae­ was just thought to be boring and a ology at the University of Bristol. I'm no-go area. in the Department for Continuing Education at the moment, and have thinking on our feet been for the last 18 years, but in 1998 I enjoy making the Time Team pro­ I'm moving into the Archaeology grammes, but in a very masochistic Department. I'm interested in the way sort of way. It's very hard work, and the landscape has developed, and there is potential for conflicts all the within that I'm particularly interested in stone walls and stuff like that. I've got time, and making sure that the local settlements — the development of ample scope here because we're on the archaeologists are happy with the way everything from early times, through end of the Mendips, with the levels be­ everything's going is my top priority. I the Iron Age, Roman, post-Roman, and low us and the Mendip hills above us. need to make sure that standards are eventually to the emergence of villages, OK, too. I find the weekends making hamlets, farmsteads and the modern one word: passion the programmes very wearing — I'm settlement patterns. The other big thing Wanting to be an archaeologist is a glad to get away, really! If I'm within I'm interested in, which is connected to good thing, provided you are that pas­ driving distance, I just look forward to that, is monastic sites — not so much sionate about it and you can put up driving home on that Sunday evening from a religious or architectural point with all the disappointments when you and crashing out for two days. I tend to of view, but from the point of view of get into it. Everybody I know who has go into each programme as cold as I how they manipulated the landscape ever wanted to get into it, like really can, so that it's spontaneous, but we do for their water supplies, their precincts, wanted to get into it, like two hundred have a production meeting before­ their granges, and their estates — and per cent wanted to get into it, has suc­ hand, lasting a day, when we go the patterns of exploitation. ceeded in some shape or form, either through the personalities and the prob­ running a one-person business or work­ lems, the sources of information, and a little light gardening ing for a unit, or they work in a muse­ the likely targets. I usually have a dis­ I'm also very interested in music. I'm a um, or they work half time or whatever. cussion with the producer about a great classical music and Radio 3 lis­ But they're in it. But you have to want month beforehand about the sort of tener. I go to concerts whenever I can, to do it very very hard, because the site it might be and the angle we might which isn't very often. I like painting opportunities are limited and there's no take. There's usually about a month's with oil pastels, when I get the chance; real proper career structure. It makes a preparation for I could do that for hours. I also like gar­ superb hobby, but if you want to do it each pro­ dening — well, not so much gardening, as a career, then you've got to get a gramme. but landscaping, really [laughing], I've degree. Consider studying something just planted a lot of prehistoric hedges, that is related, something where the in inverted commas. I'm busy laying specialism of the career can be brought those at the moment. Some of my to bear in archaeology. In that way you hedges are about 15 years old, so it's get the best of both worlds. What I also very interesting to see how to manage tell sixth formers, and people thinking things like that, such as how much fire­ about going into the sixth form, is that wood you can produce. I've got a ter­ a really good track these days is to rific variety of species, 23 I think. do something like physics, biology, Gardening is very therapeutic. It's also chemistry, computers, or math.s, and of course physical. I enjoy cutting trees then come at archaeology from that down, moving tons of clay and building direction.

16 We have up to three researchers working In the end, most of it was used. The a professor in the supermarket on it. They get a great dossier together New Scientist picked it up and did a People are incredibly complimentary using the Sites and Monuments review of the programme. The critic about the Time Team. They think it's Records, the Record Office and air pho­ said you could see the thought process­ an absolutely fantastic programme. tos. The shortest run-in we've had I think es going on (or he could have said the They say they sit down with their whole is about a week, which was a nightmare. lack of thought processes going on!), family on a Sunday evening, and say: But so much of it's thinking on our feet and he wished there could be some­ where are they going to this week? — that it doesn't really matter. thing like it for science — a programme and what will they be getting up to that followed people as they worked now? Most people just want to shake the payoff out what they were going to do. So I your hand and say how much they like Making the Time Team programmes is don't think it actually did any harm. But the programme, and ask when you are hard work but the payoff is that people if you have any sort of qualms about coming to their area. I'm not frightened enjoy them immensely. It's turned your image or your academic reputa­ to go to the supermarket, but Tony tells round the idea that archaeology is bor­ tion, don't get involved in television! me he has to travel by private car now, ing. It's now seen to be whizzy, and in because it's too much. But some peo­ the end, if I look back on it, that's what awkward questions ple say awful things to me now, like I've been trying to do all along — to There is no time in the programme for 'You are now the best-known archaeol­ interest as many people as possible in detailed debate about issues. You have ogist in Britain'. That feels very uncom­ archaeology. So I have to bury my — to give the viewers either a simplified fortable. We're trying to make archae­ 'terror' is almost the word that comes version or a short version of what's ology accessible, and being on televi­ to mind! — of another series with the going on, and of course that's why sion makes it accessible, but then peo­ fact that a lot of people now think Tony Robinson's there. He asks the ple treat you differently. If you're intro­ archaeology is a good thing. People in awkward questions. I think that's good. duced as professor, people take a step museums say they get people coming There's an awful lot of people out there back — it's like digging a big trench in now who've never been in museums who are very interested, and you have between them and you. But you have to before, and people in units say that if to make it intelligible for non-archaeol­ try and keep accessibility. Most people they talk to developers now they say, ogists. I feel very strongly about that. call me Mick, and that's great. 'oh, is it like they do on that pro­ That's what we're trying to do, and it's gramme, with the geophysics, and the why we get flak from some academics, Mick Aston talked to Philip Crummy evaluations? Oh, well, we understand and that irritates me. I think that City of over the 'phone — many thanks to that!' The feedback from the public is Victory is an absolute model and is Mick for giving some of his time to the fantastic. They don't see it as an acad­ exactly what's wanted. At the Trust Trust and producing such an enjoyable emic discipline. Why should they? They you're doing locally and through your piece. see a Time Team programme as an work and your open days, and books Colchester Archaeological Trust enjoyable thing that's almost like a like City of Victory, what we're trying to detective story, that keeps them going do nationally with the Time Team. as to what's going to happen next. We get hundreds of letters a year. Up to getting a job done three and a half million people watch­ It's surprising how well everybody on ed each programme in the last series, the Time Team gets on. In fact Tony and we had half a million visitors to our thinks it's quite incredible. He tells me internet site each day we went out live. that by the third or fourth series of any­ thing he's ever been involved in, the — or lack of thought processes actors are communicating through their My most embarrassing moment is in lawyers. That's not to say that there the Temple Combe programme. I'd aren't squabbles on site, because there asked for the tithe map, and it was on are. But I think the difference is that we Sunday morning — I realised we'd all are archaeologists, not actors, and what looked at it but hadn't absorbed the we're trying to do is get a job done. information, because of the decisions being made. I was so angry with — and don't forget Essex! myself, I just went bananas — and a East Anglia is one of the places we City of Victory cameraman appeared and started film­ have done very little in and we are hop­ is the newest Trust publication. ing... Michael Grade (then head of ing to go to Norfolk next year. But I It is a modern and 'popular' book, extensively Channel Four) thought the whole thing would like to go to Essex — in the same illustrated throughout in full colour and includ­ made great television, but they had to way I would like to go to Lincolnshire, ing a series of specially-commissioned recon­ decide what was permissible at eight I'd like to do more up north, I'd like to struction paintings by the artist Peter Froste. o'clock in the evening. I said leave it all do more industrial areas and more in City of Victory: the story of Colchester, in, because it shows what happens, the south-east. They're all targets as far Britain's first Roman town presents the reader and this is a warts and all programme. as I'm concerned. with the story of Colchester from its Iron Age origins, through its long Roman history, and to its development by the Normans 1200 years later.

City of Victory is available direct from the Trust for £9.95 (including post and packing). Just send a cheque with your order to Colchester Archaeological Trust, 12 Lexden Road, Colch­ ester, C03 3NF, or you can call in at the Trust in person and buy your copy from an archae­ ologist! (Please make cheques payable to

(Photo's of Mick Aston and the Time Team courtesy of Channel 4; the Time Team logo reproduced Colchester Archaeological Trust Ltd.) by permission of Videotext Communications Ltd with Picture House Television Company Ltd.) 17 The secrets of the Romano-Britons' genes — new data from old bones by Dr Patricia Smith

DNA Interest in ancient DNA was established long before the appearance of the film Jur­ assic Park in our cinemas. Although Jurassic Park was generally welcomed by re­ searchers, as it stimulated much interest among the gen­ eral public, it did, however, raise unrealistic expectations as to what science can Above: Ken Vonng (the current Poulter Student) at work with the PCR Biochemists at the University achieve. Few, if any, re­ machine in a lab. at the University. of Essex are working on searchers in this field believe bones from the Trust's exca­ that we can clone a dinosaur vation of the Butt Road — or more to the point and, quite importantly, why laboratory environment. The Roman cemetery. With the would even want to! What some diseases are associat­ best way to remove contam­ help of the Poulter Student­ we do want, however, is to ed with particular racial ination introduced by every­ ship, Dr Patricia Smith and know how our genes have groups. These are the type one who touches the bones Ken Vonng have made a evolved over the centuries, of questions being asked by is to remove the top milli­ breakthrough in extracting where populations originate a wide range of researchers metre or so from the bone DNA from ancient bones. from, which races are dis­ including, to name but a surface. This is done by Patricia Smith explains.. tantly related to each other few, anthropologists (who sand-blasting followed by study human beings), taxono- ultra-violet irradiation, which Mr Poulter, founder of the mists (who study classifica­ destroys any DNA on the Poulter Studentship tion), evolutionary biologists, surface. After this, the bone and immunologists (who is kept sterile, and anyone handling the bone or Harold William Poulter, 1880-1962 study disease prevention). In a profession that has always To answer these questions it extracts from it must wear attracted the eccentric and the is necessary to have a large surgical gloves and a full colourful, H W Poulter shone for 30 sample size available to face mask. A sample of the years as one of the most unforget­ bone is then ground to a fine table characters at Colchester study, something that is very Museum. difficult to obtain with arch­ powder, and this is bathed in A Yorkshireman by birth, he trav­ aeological material. Fortun­ a solution of chemicals elled widely and was involved in var­ ately for us, the Colchester which dissolve the DNA ious mining enterprises in Canada, Archaeological Trust exca­ away from the bone solids. Latin America and the Pacific rim. After his travels he trained as a min­ vated over 660 Romano- Several chemical steps later, ing engineer in Cornwall. He British skeletons from the we end up with a liquid solu­ returned home to look after his Butt Road site, and which tion of pure DNA the size of mother in Scarborough, and there are in a good state of preser­ a raindrop. However, the he became involved in archaeologi­ cal excavations. He also struck up vation. Having access to a DNA is colourless, and there what became a life-long friendship superb collection such as is simply not enough of it for with Rex Hull. Hull was appointed this, we have felt like chil­ us to make any genetic curator at Colchester Museum in dren let loose in a sweetie analysis. 1926, and he persuaded HW Poulter to join him here, where he shop! Any further analysis would served as conservator and assistant be impossible were it not for curator from 1929 until his death. He brought his mother with him and made his home in an apartment in Holly Trees museum, where he lived DNA extraction for the rest of his life. We have concentrated on Poulter was a man of many skills. He did site surveying and photogra­ extracting DNA from femurs phy on Rex Hull's archaeological excavations in the town — he is (the leg bones), as these are acknowledged in Hull's Roman Colchester — he restored pottery, and thick, and being sealed at managed the day-to-day running of the museum service. The model he made of the Temple of Claudius is still on display in the castle today. It is both ends, internal damage typical of the man that he financed the refurbishment of the conservation by water and micro-organ­ laboratory at the museum out of his own pocket. His generosity to the isms is prevented while in the then infant University of Essex was every bit as outstanding and the ground. One of the main Poulter Studentship, which he set up to fund research in archaeological science, has helped finance the research described here (and funded 14 problems associated with the PhD studentships in archaeology to date). The tributes that followed his study of ancient DNA is that death expressed the great affection in which he was held in the town. of contamination, from both by Dr Paul R. Sealey. (Photo. Colchester Museum) the archaeologists and the

18 the Polymerase Chain Re­ day-to-day basis. mtDNA is action (PCR), invented in much easier to find in 1985. PCR makes use of a ancient samples than MHC Butt naturally occurring enzyme, DNA as there are 600-1000 Road church called "DNA polymerase', times more copies of it in as it is now at which takes one strand of each cell. In addition, we the Maldon DNA and produces up to a only inherit mtDNA from our Road round­ million identical copies of it. mothers and so have only about. With PCR you can choose one type of it, as opposed to Butt Road — Roman church and cemetery which region of the DNA in MHC DNA which we inherit The site of the police station at Butt Road was excavated particular you wish to look at; from both parents. mtDNA by the Trust, mainly in late 1970s. With the excavation of with ancient DNA, of course, has some variable regions nearly 700 graves, it was one of the largest investigations it depends on that region which are associated with of a Roman burial ground in Britain. The cemetery had having survived the passage particular groups, so by look­ two main phases. At first (in the 3rd century), the graves of time relatively intact. We ing at these regions we can were laid out north-south, but later, in about AD 320/40, have chosen two types of DNA say what race a person the cemetery was replanned, with the bodies subse­ to look at; firstly, the Major belonged to. This is of great quently being placed east-west in a characteristically Histocompatibility Complex interest to us and to the Christian manner. One important feature of the site is a (MHC) genes, and secondly archaeologists, as we may presumed church, which stood at the edge of the ceme­ mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). be able to determine where tery. Another is evidence for family plots in the graveyard. in the Roman Empire the This is deduced from relationships between some of the Romano-Britons originated MHC and mtDNA graves, and from the distributions of certain finds and from. By combining the infor­ MHC genes are the most variations in bones (especially skulls), as well as the loca­ mation we obtain from the polymorphic, or varied, gene tions of skeletons showing congenital abnormalities. The MHC and mtDNA we also system identified to date. large number of skeletons means that the DNA hope to determine family The variability in the pattern researchers have a large sample to work with, and the relationships among the of the MHC genes deter­ evidence for family groups suggests that the whole col­ skeletons. mines the ability of individu­ lection is likely to be heavily cross-linked genetically and als to mount immune thus of great interest for investigations of this kind. responses and is closely The project associated with certain dis­ Technically this is an eases such as multiple scle­ extremely difficult project, rosis and diabetes. Different and it utilises all the latest types of MHC genes predom­ technology available in the inate in different countries, field of molecular biology. As and even within countries, such, it is very expensive to for example, in Cornwall and run, and has been supported Brittany there are pockets of by the University of Essex the population where the Poulter Studentship, which MHC types are different to pays a stipend to enable a those of the neighbouring PhD student to work on the populations. Determining the project. The University of MHC types of the Romano- Essex Research Promotion Britons buried in the ceme­ Fund has been generous in tery excavated at the Butt supplying a grant for con­ Road site will help us in sumables. We are also fortu­ determining MHC gene flow, nate in having collaborators Above: two skele­ and what diseases they were at the National Blood Trans­ tons, of a man and susceptible to compared with fusion Service in Colindale a woman, in their the present-day population. and at the Institute of grave at the Butt The other type of DNA we Neurology in London, who Road cemetery. are looking at, mitochondrial allow us access to their DNA (mtDNA), is found in machinery. I suspect that Further reading on the small organelles called mito­ they too are slightly in awe of excavation and site: chondria which take the oxy­ the potential goldmine of CAR 9 is the detailed gen we breathe in and information present in these technical report for Butt convert it into the energy skeletons, and would quite Road (excavations of which powers our muscles like to be let loose in the Roman and later ceme­ and makes us function on a sweetie shop as well! teries, churches, and monastic sites in Col­ chester, 1971-85.) There Dr Patricia Smith is a bio­ is also the Trust's booklet chemist currently researching called Secrets of the at the University of Essex. Grave (available from the Trust), and there is also a short section in City ofVictory.

Plan of the excavated graves and church. Colchester Archaeological Trust 19 Mark Taylor and David Hill Making Roman glass today are glassmakers based in Hampshire. They make high- by Mark Taylor and David Hill quality reproductions of a range of examples of Roman — to launch their new, even more authentic reproduction glass by hand, using tradi­ with a special offer tional techniques. Their glass­ ware is in great demand. Roman glass Chariot or circus cups OLYMPE VA. Part of this is The technique of glassblow- Mould-blown glass beakers now used as the logo of the One reproduction made by ing was invented in the 1st with scenes of chariot racing Colchester Archaeological Taylor & Hill is based on a century BC; migrating glass- and/or gladiatorial combat Trust. Fortunately, other frag­ cup from Colchester, the makers ensured the rapid were fairly common during ments of similar beakers fragments of which were spread of glassblowing across the second half of the 1st have been found at sites found by the Trust. the Roman Empire. Most century AD, and have been including London and Vin- examples found in the UK found throughout the west­ donissa in Switzerland, and a are likely to have been ern provinces of the Roman virtually complete example is imported. Glassblowing meant Empire. Chariot-race cups held at the Musee Arche- that glass vessels could be are known as circus cups, the ologique in Namur, Belgium, produced much faster and circus being the race track. enabling us to reconstruct so compete with pottery. These cups were perhaps like the whole design. Despite the fragility of glass, a souvenir of a popular sports enough fragments have been personality today. The design found to give us a good pic­ Four fragments of glass There are four chariots in the ture of the diversity of five were found by the Colchester full design of this example, centuries of Roman glass. Archaeological Trust at Balk- which has a main frieze of Roman glass was a soda- erne Lane. These fragments the race, with the inscription lime type, made of silicon, are nearly one quarter of one of the four names (with VA, sodium and calcium oxides, such beaker, a cylindrical cup for vade, meaning go, or with potassium, magnesium with a single racing frieze, vale, meaning farewell), and and aluminium oxides; the possibly made in or around characteristic pale blue- Cologne. It depicts the victo­ green colour is caused by an rious charioteer Olympe, with Sadly, nothing seems to be impurity, iron oxide. Our chariot (quadriga) and team known of Olympe (Olympus), glass is closely based on of four horses, holding aloft but his name recurs on Roman ingredients, but with his winner's wreath and most of the different ex­ the advantages of modern palm, with the inscription amples of circus beakers, glass technology we produce suggesting that he was a a glass which is easy to work frequent and popular by hand, but with the colour The most famous race competitor. Three of his and characteristics of Roman track was the Circus Max- fellow drivers named on glass, ie thinness, light imus in Rome, and details other cups are described weight, bubbles and 'cord', of the ' spina' (the central in antiquity. Incitatus is and a shiny fire-polished barrier of the race track) mentioned by the Roman finish. are often included in the writer Martial, and two beakers, such as the three others are featured in ' metae', the conical turn­ contemporary inscriptions. Chariot racing was a pop­ ing-posts, as well as the Pompeius Musclosus won ular spectator sport in the central obelisk and the an extraordinary 3,559 Roman Empire and the seven bronze 'ovarium' races, and Crescens was charioteers were like (eggs) or 'delphinarium' killed (presumably in a modem racing drivers — (dolphins) which indicated race) aged 22, having Above: Mark Taylor at work, finish­ famous, well rewarded, to crowd and drivers the already earned the vast ing a newly-blown circus cup prior and celebrated on deco­ numbers of laps remain­ sum of 1,588,346 sester­ to annealing. rated glass chariot cups... ing (see frieze below). ces by winning races. Below: the complete frieze.

20 © David Hill 1997 a lower frieze with a hunting When all three parts of the Our moulds are cast in scene and trees. Three chari­ mould have been engraved, bronze for ease of use and dur­ ots are racing and the winner it is re-assembled, and a clay ability, but carefully chased is standing — this may archetype (C) is made. (finished) to impart a similar record one actual race, in surface texture to the glass as which Olympe was the win­ on the Roman originals. ner, as he is shown at the front, ahead of lerax, Pyra- Text and pictures by Mark mus and Eutycus, in the Taylor and David Hill. complete frieze. All of the known chariot For further details on Roman race cups show the four mould-blown glass, including teams (whites, blues, reds circus cups, see 'Decorated and greens) racing from left mould-blown glass table­ wares in the 1st century AD' to right around the vessels, three inner surfaces. The by Jennifer Price, in "Roman reflecting the spectators' view design can be engraved glass — Two Centuries of Art of the event. using the simplest of tools and Invention" edited by such as iron needles with Martine Newby and Kenneth Production both sharp and rounded Painter (published by the We now produce reproduc­ ends. As the engraving pro­ At this stage the Roman Society of Antiquaries in tions of twelve different circus gresses, one can check the artisans probably fired the 1991). beaker designs, intended to depth of sculpture by taking archetype in a kiln, producing CAR 8 is the Trust report complement our range of plasticine impressions. one or more durable masters which deals with the vessel free-blown Roman glass from which many moulds glass found in excavations in reproductions, and our meth­ could be made by pressing Colchester 1971-85 (by HE ods of production follow what clay around the surface of M Cool and Jennifer Price). we believe to be similar each one, and carefully processes to those used by cutting it away to provide Roman artisans. clean-fitting seams. Firstly, a former (A) has to After drying, these three be produced on a lathe. It parts were fired. The glass- includes the horizontal bands blower could now expand a of the frieze and the foot glass bubble inside the rings on the vessel's base, as mould whilst his assistant well as a "dome' and "chim­ held the three parts together. ney' above the lip of the After the blown vessel was beaker. annealed (cooled in a con­ Next, a three-part plaster trolled cycle to remove stresses mould (B) is made from in the glass), the dome or the former. When dry, the 'moile' would be cracked off, beaker's design is carefully and the lip of the beaker drawn backwards onto the ground to produce a safer edge. Special offer for readers of the Colchester Archaeologist

to launch their new version of the chariot race mould-blown beaker a hand-made reproduction based on the example from Colchester is being made available to readers by Mark Taylor and David Hill, Glassmakers at £11 each — usual price £16 each (including post & packing) (including p & p)

To support the Colchester Archaeological Trust, Mark Taylor and Please make all cheques payable to Colchester Archaeological Trust Ltd: David Hill, who make a magnificent range of free-blown reproduction send your order, with cheque for £11 per item required Roman glass vessels, have made a generous offer to donate £2 to (inclusive of postage and packing), to the Trust for every beaker purchased in this special offer. These Mark Taylor and David Hill, Glassmakers, superb lightweight beakers are directly based on originals found in Unit 11, Project Workshops, Lains Farm, Britain and on the Continent. They are in a pale blue-green glass, Quarley, Andover, Hampshire SP11 8PX. made entirely by hand and blown into three-piece moulds, with Orders will be despatched direct from the workshop as soon as they are received, and will be sent individually boxed. ground rims. These beakers make a beautiful addition to any display (Catalogue sent on request.) as well as being tactile, informative and fascinating ornaments. This is not an offer to be missed — and it helps the Trust as well! — new reproduction available from February 1998 Offer ends 31st December 1998 known in the 14th The Rose & Crown is one of the more century as a parlour picturesque buildings in the town, near — and at the east East Bridge, on the comer of the old end there was a ser­ junction of the roads to Ipswich, vice room or rooms. the Rose Harwich and Tendring. The Royal First-floor accommo­ Commission on the Historical Monu­ dation was limited to ments of England (RCHME) did a sur­ a room above the vey of the building ahead of conserva­ parlour and probably tion works in 1997. The author of the one above the ser­ report guides you round the building... & Crown vice end as well. The hall alone was heat­ The Rose and Crown Hotel, Colchester ed, by an open Explore the The Rose and Crown Hotel on East hearth. Little of the Rose & Crown — Street has been a familiar Colchester original structure is from 14th-century landmark for much of this century, with visible externally, but aisled hall to 20th- its multiple gables, undulating tiled at the west end, in Hotel century restoration roofs, black-painted timbers and white- the entrance to the painted panels of wattle and daub. Yet car park, you can see like many such buildings, until recently two surviving posts, set in from the ends alterations. The present appearance of we knew more about its 19th- and of the gable; these posts, and some re­ the building is largely the result of a 20th-century history than we did about used studs (vertical timbers) in the complex sequence of mainly 15th- its medieval origins. There is a good same gable, all have halving joints century alterations and additions which reason for this. Documentary sources which hint at the original form of the transformed the relatively simple aisled are much fuller for the recent past than building. structure into a hall-and-cross-wings for the remote past. Even where early house with an addition at the east end. documents survive, the process of Inside (for the price of a drink or a The transformation was made possible matching them to surviving buildings is meal) one can see more. Start at the by the construction of a large brick fraught with difficulties, and they rarely rear, main entrance and go into the chimney stack in the hall, with fire­ tell us more than a fraction of what we pub. Follow the ground floor through places heating no less than four rooms. wish to know. To understand these towards the west end, and as you Without the open hearth and its smoke buildings, therefore, we have to look at approach the doorway into the last rising to the rafters before escaping the only substantial body of evidence room look at the slender timber above through a hole in the roof, the hall which is left to us — the building itself. the door, with a diagonal joint cut could be ceiled over and an additional Essex County Council, already alerted across its face. This joint was for one of first-floor room created, but in order to to the significance of the Rose and the passing braces of the aisled struc­ light the upper room the low side walls Crown, asked the RCHME to investi­ ture. Walk through the doorway, then of the aisles had to be rebuilt. In the gate it in advance of conservation turn to look back at the chimney stack, process the original roof was lost. works, and this was our opportunity to and you will see, in the side of the ceil­ look in detail at the fabric of this ing beam, the mortices for the joists of ancient and fascinating building. the room above the parlour (sometimes 19th-century droving inn called the solar in medieval docu­ The later fortunes of the building can ments). There is more evidence on the be summarised quite briefly. It was Early 14th-century aisled hall first floor, but the hotel premises are documented as an inn in 1741 and re­ At the heart of the Rose and Crown are not open to the public. mained one until late in the 19th or the substantial remains of a timber- Aisled halls were not easily adapted early in the 20th century. Its position on framed aisled house probably dating to suit the needs of later generations; the principal roads from Colchester to from early in the 14th century. Essex consequently they are rarely encoun­ Harwich and Ipswich no doubt con­ has more than its fair share of aisled tered without a heavy disguise of tributed to its trade, as did the presence medieval houses, but from a national perspective they are a rare commodity, and the often fragmentary evidence which they contain is correspondingly precious. For those who are unfamiliar with aisled houses, the basic form may be more familiar from churches. Aisled buildings have a tall central 'nave' flanked by lower aisles, the roofs of the aisles being continuations of the nave roof. The division between the nave and aisles takes the form of an arcade supported by widely-spaced posts (or in stone buildings by columns), permitting free movement from one to the other. Aisled houses are among the earliest which survive in this country, timber- framed examples existing from about 1200. The principal room of the Rose and Perspective view of an aisled hall. Crown was originally a hall, open to the This is based on a Kent example, and not all the roof. At the west end there was a more features shown here are paralleled at the Rose and Crown. private room — what came to be (RCHME © Crown Copyright)

22 The Rose and made the building more Crown in 1921. comfortable to live in, and It had ceased to the sash windows and pan­ be a public house elled doors which brought it and was divided up-to-date with the fashions up into three of the day. These too were cottages. historical evidence, but they (RCHME jarred with the vision of the © Crown restorer. It is a useful Copyright) reminder that in interpreting old buildings we need to understand not only the phys­ ical evidence that has come down to us, but also the minds of those who have shaped the building through­ out its history. of a nearby cattle fair (at St Anne's Crown was restored between 1937 and I am grateful to the management and staff of the field). When it changed hands in 1857 1939 by Mrs Grace Faithful Roper, who Rose and Crown for their assistance in the mak­ much of its business was tied up with over a number of years restored a series ing of the record on which this article is based. the livestock droving trade. The out­ of Essex buildings (including the The full record is deposited at the National buildings included a slaughterhouse, timber-framed building on the opposite Monuments Record Centre in Swindon. Copies and the inn was known as a place side of East Street). Mrs Roper probably can also be consulted at the Essex Sites and where animals were assembled before saved the building from destruction, Monuments Record in Chelmsford and at being taken to various local markets (in but the restoration had an uncompro­ Colchester Public Library. the town, there was one in the High mising character, aiming to recreate Street, and another at Bury field). the medieval building by completely Article written by Adam Menuge of the When the inn closed, the building was stripping it of all later features. RCHME, 1997 converted into three cottages and fell To outside observers the most dra­ into disrepair, becoming at risk of being matic alteration was the removal of the demolished. external plaster, bringing to light tim­ bers which had been concealed for Conservation — old style centuries. Mullioned windows were Twentieth-century restorations of his­ inserted, though not in every case war­ toric buildings may seem an odd ranted by the evidence. There is now focus for our interest, but unless we virtually no trace of the interiors which appreciate something of their nature evolved in the 18th and 19th centuries we may be led astray in looking for ear­ — the plastered walls, underdrawn lier evidence in buildings. The Rose and ceilings and additional fireplaces which

The Rose and Crown in 1997. The timber framing has been exposed, mullioned windows have replaced sash windows, and the tall chimney on the front has been dis­ mantled. (RCHME © Crown Copyright) World War Two survey Colchester Essex County Council Arch­ aeology Section is conduct­ ing the current WW2 Def­ at war — ences project to survey and record in detail the fortifica­ tions along the county's the WW2 four major defence lines, one of which was the defences of Eastern Command Line. Colchester was a key town Colchester on this line. by Fred Nash of the ECC

The defence of the county between the coast and the heartland Street, the old brickworks south of In June 1940, the town of Colchester, of Britain. The first of these linear bar­ Cowdray Avenue, the Castle grounds, with its outstanding Roman remains riers to be met by a German invasion North Hill and to Lexden; the line was from an invasion nearly 2,000 years force driving in from the north-east studded with concrete pillboxes sited to earlier, faced another threat from Essex coast would have been the provide overlapping fields of fire. The across the Channel. In the immediate Eastern Command Line, a defensive wooden bridges across the river were aftermath of the evacuation from Dun­ position which originated at the mouth demolished by Army engineers; the kirk, a German landing on the beach­ of the River Colne at Mersea Island shallow crossing points of the river es of England seemed imminent; a and, using the river as an anti­ were lined with concrete and steel anti­ question not of if, but when. Working tank barrier, headed north-westwards tank obstacles; and road barriers were around the clock, anti-invasion defen­ across the county to Sudbury and set up to block the approaches into ces were being constructed all over Suffolk. At its southern end, it hinged town. Fortified emplacements and Britain, and nowhere more so than here. on the garrison town of Colchester, the machine-gun positions faced across It had been seen in the invasion of capture of which would not only have the river from warehouses and sheds the Low Countries that once a German opened up a large part of Essex but along the wharfsides. More pillboxes armoured force breached the main would also have been a major industri­ were constructed at Colchester North defensive position, there was little to al, military and communication prize Station and the Ipswich Road/St And­ stop its columns creating havoc behind for the German forces. rew's Avenue junction, in positions on Allied lines. It was this threat which The town was very heavily defended. high ground overlooking the river. prompted the Chiefs of Staff to plan a The defensive line led along the west In all, the sites of 42 pillboxes have strategy based on the "stop-line" prin­ bank of the River Colne as it curves its been recorded by the WW2 Defences ciple with multiple anti-tank lines way through the Hythe area, East project around the north and east of

24 the town, over a distance of no more than four and a half miles. Of these, just seven remain, one having been demolished at North Station car park as recently as 1996. In 1942, spigot mortars were issued to the Home Guard. Each one required a concrete pit with a central mounting pedestal. Eleven of these emplace­ ments were constructed to add their

More to come The great number of defensive sites on the Eastern Command Line around the north and east of the town still only rep­ resents half of the picture of the town's defences. The remit of the current WW2 Defences project covers the Above: concrete blocks in Colchester Castle park detailed surveying and recording of the in 1997 — during WW2, the river at this point fortifications along the county's four was silted up and shallow, so these blocks were major defence lines, including those embedded along the river bank, and linked by along the River Colne stretch of the heavy cables, to prevent tanks crossing the river. Eastern Command Line. However, it is Go and have a look at them, if you've ever won- known that, following the concept of derd what they are! an "anti-tank island", Colchester was Even the recent past is archaeology, and it is to be defended against attack from all all around us — this is why archaeological work is sides. The river provides a boundary to This pillbox at North Station car park sur­ so important, to record things as we alter our the north and east, but there is no nat­ vived until 1996, when it was demolished environment. The record survives even though the ural obstacle to the south and west. So for the ASDA development. object is lost. Colchester Archaeological Trust a huge engineering work was under­ taken — the digging of a four-and-a- before crossing the rifle ranges at Colchester defended half mile anti-tank ditch, up to 20 feet Middlewick to Berechurch and Layer Colchester did not suffer greatly during wide and 10 feet deep. Although not Road. Here it turned northwards WW2, and attack was all from the air. due to be surveyed in the field as part through Shrub End to rejoin the Colne The town was bombed quite often of the current project, it is possible to at Lexden, thus completing the encir­ but not badly: 54 people died in the trace much of the path of this line, and clement of the town. The whole of this town during the war, and the worst its supporting defence works, from southern section would have been lined destruction was caused on one night contemporary records and aerial pho­ with pillboxes, anti-tank road barriers in February 1944, when 20 houses tographs. Starting on the west bank of and gun positions in much the same and shops and three factories at the Colne south of the Hythe, it head­ density as the river section, although St Botolph's were destroyed in an ed westwards to Old Heath Road how many survive remains unknown. air raid.

Colchester has a long defensive and 'offensive' history, as does nearby Harwich. Read on for more information on the coastal defences..

Top left: the Colchester Home Guard manning a Northover Projector — this launched a glass phosphorus grenade which burst into flames when it broke. (© Imperial War Museum: H.22520)

Left: map of the recorded defences around the north and east of Colchester during WW2. The Eastern Command Line followed the River Colne from its estuary at Mersea Island to Wakes Colne before heading northwards to Suffolk. The defences around the south and west of the town have only been recorded from documents and photographs. (© Essex County Council)

Right: The Colchester Home Guard on exercises with a spigot mortar. The gun could be deployed in open ground, but was more usually mounted on a concrete pedestal in a purpose- built octagonal pit, as here. (© Imperial War Museum: H.22518) 25 Around the county — Essex in 1997

The Essex County Council Archaeology Section Post-war and is on land which is desig­ Beacon Hill fort continued in nated as public open space. use until it was decommis­ The site is now overgrown, sioned by the Ministry of but there are plans to devel­ Defence in 1956, although a op it as a museum. guns. The design was radical token military presence of a Beacon Hill Fort is only for coastal defence, with a single soldier one day a year one of the sites of historic Essex County Council Planning new, low profile, built to was maintained until the interest in the old town of blend with the natural topog­ early 1970s. Today, Beacon Harwich, and which are all raphy when viewed from the Hill Fort contains an impres­ parts of its long maritime and Work of the RCHME (Royal sea. It contained six guns in sive and diverse range of defensive history. (See the Commission on the Historical concrete emplacements with structures which effectively advertisement opposite for Monuments of England) at a range of support buildings: illustrate much of the devel­ more details.) Beacon Hill Fort in Harwich. magazines, stores, shelters, opment of coastal artillery technology in the late 19th etc. Beacon Hill Fort was the Three of the main gun emplace­ first coastal site to utilise the and 20th centuries. ments at Beacon Hill; a 4.7" quick- Coastal artillery battery Twydall Profile, on its land­ firing gun emplacement built in ward side, an innovative Copies of the full site 1 892 (foreground), a 6" breech­ The impressive and complex arrangement of earthworks report may be purchased loader gun emplacement of 1890, remains of a large coastal and fencing which was from RCHME, Brooklands, replaced around 1904 by a 6" artillery battery, known as designed for infantry to repel 24 Brooklands Avenue, Cam­ Mark VII gun and with a WW2 pro­ Beacon Hill Fort, in Harwich, ground assault. By 1892, the bridge CB2 2BU; tel. 01223 tective casemate over (centre), and were the subject of a detailed fort was fully armed, and dur­ 324010. A management re­ the WW2 twin 6'-gun emplacement photographic and drawn sur­ ing the 1890s it was main­ port is available from Tend- with its prominent fire control tower vey between February and tained at peak efficiency. ring District Council for (background) — looking out to sea. April of 1997. The battery £3.00. (National Monuments Record formerly protected the Stour/ The 20th century Beacon Hill Fort is a BB97/5431; © Crown Copyright Orwell estuary and the route The fort was enlarged at the Scheduled Ancient Monument reserved) into Harwich harbour. The turn of the century and fur­ survey was undertaken by ther developments occurred staff from the Cambridge during WWl and WW2, with office of the RCHME on be­ changes in armament and half of Essex County Council. ancillary structures. During The present remains date WWl, Harwich was in the largely from the 1880s and front line of defences, and after, but there were much the Fort was augmented with earlier fortifications here. two 1-pounder automatics, Beacon Hill, situated be­ the first anti-aircraft guns tween the ancient port of to be installed here. The har­ Harwich and the Victorian bour was packed with des­ spa resort of Dovercourt, was troyers, and for the duration the site of a Henrician block­ of the war, Harwich stood house and then a Napo­ ready — but the only leonic gun battery (the German warships to enter Redoubt, built in 1808, is the harbour were the surren­ 100m away, with the site of dered U-boats brought here another gun battery at Bath- after the Armistice. side Bay). Both the Napo­ leonic and older works at Early radar Beacon Hill have been lost to During WW2, it was recog­ quarrying and coastal ero­ nised that the main threat sion. Subsequently, around would be from the air, not 1870, a practice battery of from the sea, and various three guns was constructed measures were put in place for the Royal Garrison Art­ to give the guns and the gar­ illery volunteers. rison greater protection. There was also an interesting Radical coastal defence development in the form of a Following the results of a brick tower north of the fort, secret defence committee, built in 1940, for early exper­ construction of the present iments in radar. This is one of installation began in 1889; it the earliest radar emplace­ was one of a new gener­ ments in the country, and ation of forts designed to some internal aerial array still mount the new breech-loading survives. 26 Cressing Temple buildings into a larger brick mansion. From 1994, the Cressing Temple is owned by annual Field School excava­ the Esssex County Council tions have centred on parts and is open to the public as a of the 'greate house', re- visitor site and for various excavating the chapel and events, including an archae­ cellar at the north-east cor­ ological Field School for ner, and examining a pair of amateurs. Cressing Temple medieval stone houses, one is a complex of agricultural of which had a Tudor cellar buildings once associated sunk into it. with the Knights Templar. The completion of the new visitor centre marks the end Since 1993, the Cressing of most development work Temple archaeological team on the site and few ground­ has been working to locate, works will be undertaken here map, and put into its proper in the foreseeable future. context the Tudor manor house at the site; the Field New discoveries School excavations of Aug­ The 1997 trench was posi­ ust/September 1997 brought tioned in the south-western this phase of the study to a corner of the Tudor house. successful conclusion. Small test excavations con­ Previous excavations un­ firmed the presence of brick earthed parts of several walls and demolition rubble medieval structures including and a larger trench was a stone chapel and hall and opened up for the Field a succession of timber build­ School. ings, as well as a brick cellar The excavation revealed and other substantial brick the boulder clay subsoil slop­ foundations. A resistivity sur­ ing away to the south-west, vey provided more indica­ with a much steeper drop or tions of the outline of a bank across the middle of the complex structure which trench. This surface had incorporated the medieval been cobbled over in the late Plan of the Cressing temple complex. (© Essex County Council) Historic

Harwich is well worth a visit %vicv\^

1318 Town Charter granted by Edward 11.... historic documents held in the Guildhall 1450 "Foresters" built the oldest surviving house in town, in Church Street 1620 home to the Mayflower see Captain Jones' house, in King's Head Street 1666 Shipyard bell installed see the bell at Navyard Wharf 1667 the treadwheel crane built now on Harwich Green, it is unique in the UK 1679 Samuel Pepys MP for Harwich see plaque on wall of Quayside Court 1769 the Guildhall built contains rare wall carvings — visit on public open days 1808 Redoubt Fort built open to the public, with historic guns, a small display, views 1818 the Low Lighthouse built now houses the Maritime Museum 1818 the High Lighthouse built now houses the Wireless Museum 1822 St Nicholas' Church built organ newly restored 1851 Ha'penny Pier built now the Visitor Centre, on the Quay 1876 the Lifeboat house built now a museum; climb aboard a real lifeboat 1889 Beacon Hill Fort built the remains are accessible on Beacon Hill 1911 the Electric Palace built now the oldest working cinema in the UK — see a film! 1995 painted mural on 90-foot long wall in Wellington Road, it depicts Harwich buildings and ships

Come and view the big ships — numerous cafes, restaurants, and pubs

~ the Harwich Society has been working to improve Harwich for over 25 years ~

The Harwich Society organises guided tours for parties of 10 or more at any time by prior arrangement (tel. 01255 502668). Individuals or family groups are invited to call in at the Ha'penny Pier Visitor Centre, May 1-August 31, for advice. medieval period to form an all-weather stratigraphy, surveying and artefacts. owners. A large number of old names yard surface. The north-east corner of For the first time there was a workshop suggest reasons for their use. In the trench was occupied by the corner on the identification of animal bones, Cressing parish, for example, a field of a substantial building with 1 m-wide and sessions on fieldwalking were called Moulshams was probably owned brick footings laid over rammed flint included. The trainees were a varied by one of the Moulsham family; simi­ foundations. The corner, which was group, including high school and uni­ larly a part of Chelmsford is still called almost on top of the bank, had been versity students from as far afield as Moulsham. Other fields called Egypt reinforced by especially deep brick rub­ Edinburgh and Milan, and local retired meadow and Bombay lands would ble foundations and an even broader people. have been a long way from the farm­ brick footing. stead, necessitating a tedious journey Along the western side of the exca­ there and back. vation a thick dump of silt and cess had Essex place-names project In Cressing a field called Hanging been thrown down the bank and later Bags is on a slope. In Strethall and capped with a thick layer of clay. Into People from all walks of life and local Little Bromley, fields called Clapit Shot, this a 1.5m-square foundation of brick groups have, over 1997, been record­ Potash Meadow and Potash Close were rubble had been set and covered with a ing the names of places, farms, fields, once quarried for clay (to make pottery) layer of mortar, on which was built a streams, woods, streets, former land­ and potash (to use as fertiliser). One in solid brick structure, only a small part of owners and tenants as part of the Essex Mountnessing called Brick Kiln Field which survives. More walls once existed place-names project. They have been marks the site where bricks were fired; to the south and west, showing that the using all sorts of sources — old docu­ although no kiln remains can be seen complex continued in this direction. ments such as the Tithe Award dating here, archaeological investigation has The square foundations were similar to to the 1830s and 1840s, plus old revealed medieval pottery kilns in near­ those reinforcing the corner of the estate maps and deeds. Some have by Fryerning. house and may have supported a large been looking more closely at their A field called Blowers was docu­ gateway. Between the two structures parish on the ground to find evidence mented as being the property of Adam the cobbled yard had been extensively of former features such as mills, field le Blower in 1258, and he was perhaps repaired, and several wheel ruts were boundaries or old cottages. Many no the man who worked the bellows in the found, indicating a well-used way longer exist, but traces may survive in smithy's forge. Of thoroughly enigmat­ around the house. the form of mounds, ridges in fields, ic nature, however, is Repentance Field and kinks in an otherwise straight lane. in Greensted-by-Ongar. The Field School All this information is noted on forms Over 130 parishes, a quarter of the The 1997 Field School at Cressing ran and then transferred to a computer total in Essex, are now being studied, for five weeks in August and Sept­ database. This sorts and analyses the and the information should become ember. The courses include lect­ information in a way that is useful to available in the Essex Record Office for ures and workshops on recording, historians, archaeologists and land­ future researchers.

East Anglian Archaeology Titles: THE ARCHAEOLOGY of ESSEX Ed. Owen Bedwin

EAA 25 Excavations at Hill Farm, Qestingthorpe. This new publication presents an up-to-date account J Draper 1985 £6.50 of the archaeology of the county, from the Palaeolithic to the Industrial period. Specialist authors provide 21 EAA33 Excavations at Woodham Walter and an assessment chapters, 16 of which descibe the archaeology ol the ot Essex enclosures. county on a chronological basis. The five remaining D Priddy and D Buckley 1987 £5.40 chapters deal with; the environment, the SMR and historical accounts of individuals and organisations EAA 41 Excavations at Great Dunmow, Essex. involved with archaeology in Essex since the war. N Wickenden 1988 £7.40 This 232-page book also has a comprehensive index, 70 line drawings, 23 half-tones and three colour EAA 42 Archaeology and Environment in South Essex. photographs. It is essential reading (or those with an Essex County Council T Wilkinson 1988 £7.40 interest in the archaeology of the County of Essex. £21 EAA43 Excavation at the north ring, Mucking, Essex. D Bond 1988 £3.40 Fortress Essex

EAA71 The Archaeology of the Essex Coast Volume 1. The P Gilman, F Nash 1995 Hullbridge Survey Project. The rich heritage of Essex contains many sites which T Wilkinson and P Murphy 1995 £26.50 provide a witness to threats posed to past inhabitants of the county. Published in 1995 to mark the 50th EAA 75 Excavations at North Shoebury, Settlement an anniversary of the ending of WWII, this booklet Economy in south-east Essex 1500 BC - AD 1500. reviews what is known about the county's defences J Wymer and N Brown 1995 £22.00 and their significance. £3.50

Many more titles are available

Archaeology Section Further details, book lists ESSEX FROM THE AIR and order forms are available from: Covering the evolution of the County's landscape from the Neolithic until today, each photograph is accompanied by an annotated line drawing to aid Roger Massey-Ryan interpretation, extended captions and introductions which set the picture for each ESSEX COUNTY COUNCIL chapter. In addition, complementary illustrations,such as maps, finds, ground PLANNING DEPARTMENT shots and reconstruction pictures accompany the aerial views. ARCHAEOLOGY SECTION COUNTY HALL SCHEDULED FOR PUBLICATION CHELMSFORD IN SPRING 1998 CM1 1LF Enquiries to. David Strachan - tel. (01245) 437681 TEL: (01245) 437633 I More Recorders are needed to inves­ tigate other parishes and to help with those currently under study. No skills are required other than an interest in the subject and a little time, and a full explanation as to how to go about the research is given. It is an excellent way of getting to know more about where you live. Further information is available from the Project Co-ordinator at 27 Tor Bryan, Ingatestone CM4 9JZ; please include a large stamped, self- addressed envelope.

Hylands House

Heligan was on television — but has Essex got the lost gardens of Hylands?

Hylands House is a 'stately home' near and has been propped up on scaffold­ nothing survives above ground, the Chelmsford, now owned by Chelmsford ing for 10 years. The ceiling is now greenhouse foundations were located, Borough Council. The original house exposed again, thanks to a new as well as cobbled paths, drainage was remodelled and extended by Sir method of suspending the plasterwork. channels, blocked doors and footings Humphrey Repton in the Neoclassical for cisterns. Archaeological evidence of style. The second phase of the Archaeology in the garden how the walled garden once looked will Council's restoration of Hylands House The ECC Field Archaeology Group be crucial if a reconstruction of the gar­ will take place during 1998, returning undertook excavations in the walled den is attempted in the future. the East Wing to its early Victorian kitchen garden to see what remains of splendour. This work is costing £1.4m, the 19th-century greenhouses and Chelmsford Museums Service is trying and the house will be closed to the other structures. These were once the to piece together the story of Hylands, public until early in 1999. envy of the horticultural world in Britain and is keen to talk to people with mem­ Meanwhile, conservators have been and rivalled anything at places like ories, photographs and memorabilia of at work on the ornate plaster ceiling of Heligan in Cornwall, including hot- Hylands House and its estate. the banqueting room, which was sag­ frames containing pits full of dung Please contact Nick Wickenden on ging badly from the wooden beams for growing pineapples! Although 01245 281660 if you can help.

Secret basin Recently archaeologists at the Trust were delighted to be let into a family secret and shown what appears to be a very unusual imported Roman mar­ ble basin. The owner remembers it being ploughed up about 70 years ago on the site of a villa near Alresford, and confirms that it has been a prized family possession ever since. The basin is so heavy that it took three men to move the object into the back garden in Colchester where it is now kept. The basin has two original holes in it, one in an end for a lead water-pipe (part of which is still there), and the other in the bottom for the outlet. Comparable Roman basins are plain and rectangu­ lar in shape, but this one is octagonal in plan and has an unusual base which slopes downwards towards the outlet. As yet, no close Roman parallel has been found for the object so its identification must remain uncertain, since the basin might prove to be 18th century or later in date, despite having been found on a Roman site. However, it was very probably a fancy basin which formed part of the water supply for the villa. The flow of water into the basin would presumably have been controlled by a brass or bronze tap, unless it was 'plumbed' directly into one of the many springs in the vicinity of the villa. Colchester Archaeological Trust

— with thanks to the owner.

29 Archaeology for young Investigate the clues to the past that can be people found in the streets near to your school!

text and photographs by Mike Corbishley

Looking underfoot

What do you look at as you walk to the shops or to school? Do you look straight ahead at other people? Or do you look up at the buildings and the sky?

Try looking down sometimes — you'll be surprised at what is under your feet!

You can still find iron grills for the large drains which run under the roads. Sometimes you might find the maker's name on them, as here — Needham from Stockport. (Be careful that you only look from the pavement.)

You will sometimes find old paving like this. These are hard stone blocks (usually But there are other things to granite) cut with a chisel into look out for under foot. Here rectangles or wedges. These is an iron drain cover for a 'setts', as they are called, can gutter pipe (now missing). be anything from 15 to 45 The water ran in a groove in centimetres deep. the setts and out into the road.

You know the word 'pave- ment', of course. Our pave- ments are usually flat and smooth, made from concrete or large stone (or imitation stone) slabs. But did you know that in the past, 'paving' also meant the sur- face of roads and streets? Look at the different surfaces there are in this street.

30 Covers with hinges might show that regular deli­ veries were made, as here. Per­ haps this house was once a pub.

Iron was, and still is, often used for sturdy covers set into pavements or roads. This is a Iron covers also provide clues for showing coalhole cover in the pave­ that buildings had cellars. This is outside a ment outside a house. Sacks house. Heavy glass was often used to let of coal were tipped through some light into the cellar or below-street here into the cellar of the level rooms. house.

How many mak- ers' names can you find? Can you find out from the local studies library if there was an iron factory in the town, or how far away covers and grills had to be trans- ported? Uncover Colchester's Unique Past

The engrossing story of Colchester, one of the oldest recorded towns in Britain, is portrayed in this new book from English Heritage Education Service. A 'must read' for anyone interested in local history, the book, written for teachers, looks at the physical remains of the town's past, including the pre-Roman defence system which surrounded the area, the buried remains of the Romano-British temple and theatre, the Roman city with its massive walls, the Norman castle and buildings which testify to the effects of the catastrophic siege during the Civil War.

Written by Janet Lumley, formerly Education Officer for the Gosbecks Archaeological Park, the highly- illustrated 36-page A4 book costs just £3.95 including p&p. To order, please send a cheque ENGLISH HERITAGE (made payable to English Heritage) to English Heritage Education Service, Freepost 22 (WD214), Please send me your latest catalogue London W1E 5EZ. Name.

Address

For details of the full range of English Heritage's hundreds of books, videos and posters, simply fill in the coupon. Postcode COL 1 the Friends Rose. Then the Friends enjoyed a guid­ ed tour of the 'new' Globe under the of the Colchester expert guidance of Professor Andrew Gurr who played an important role in Archaeological its reconstruction. The new Globe Friends on stage at the Globe (completed in 1997) is an impressive building, and we were able to wander Trust freely and explore the whole theatre. We each had our moment of glory on The popularity of the Friends continues the stage, but unfortunately there was to increase, with the number of fully no audience at the time! All the paid-up members in 1997 approach­ Friends on the trip agreed that it was ing 400. The annual round-up of one of our most memorable outings archaeological work was held as usual ever. in the lecture theatre of the Castle Museum where Friends were given The Bartlow Hills slide shows about the latest discoveries The Bartlow Hills in Cambridgeshire at Stanway, Gosbecks, and the ASDA form the most impressive group of site. This was followed up later in the Roman barrows in Britain, so the first year with a special Friends visit to see trip to see them by the Friends was the excavations in progress at Stanway long overdue. They were excavated and Gosbecks. mainly in 1835-40, but most of the finds, which proved to be spectacular, were destroyed in a fire shortly after­ The churches of the Rodings wards. Fortunately, Michael Faraday The annual churches trip was well (the scientist portrayed on modern 20- attended as usual. This year we visited pound notes) carried out the chemical five of the famous Roding churches, analysis of the finds, so we at least and as a result Friends were able to have the best possible scientific assess­ ring the oldest bell in Essex at Leaden ment which was available at the time. Roding, see the picturesque church at En route to Bartlow, the Friends visited Beauchamp Roding, and admire the Colchester's cloth trade, but far more Colchester's own two barrows, the Norman carvings at Margaret Roding. Colchester cloth seals have been found Lexden Tumulus in Fitzwalter Road in London than anywhere else, includ­ and the Mount in Marlow Way, as a Museum of London ing Colchester itself. taster of what was to come. There were two trips to London this year. First there was an extremely inter­ The Globe Theatre Tilbury at war esting 'hands-on' cloth seals session at Later in the year the Friends returned Another exceptionally interesting trip the Museum of London, which gave to London to find out about two of was made to the Tilbury area, courtesy Friends from south of London a the capital's earliest theatres. Julian of the Thurrock Historical Society, to chance to meet up with those from Bowsher gave a slide talk in the learn about forts and other defensive north of London! The two-hour session Museum of London about his discovery measures along the Thames over the was led by Geoff Egan of the Museum and excavation of the Rose Theatre. last four hundred years. We visited the of London Archaeology Service, who The Friends then looked round the new Tilbury fort, Purfleet Magazine (a gun­ produced dozens of examples of cloth displays at the museum for free, before powder store), and Coalhouse Fort. seals for everybody to handle. In an visiting the sites of the Rose and the John Webb, a member of the Society, excellent presentation (which included Globe theatres. These are very close joined the coach as it entered the slides), he discussed the cloth trade together on the South Bank, and we Tilbury area and provided the Friends in Colchester from the 13th to the learned how they were briefly in com­ with a remarkably entertaining and 17th centuries. It may seem odd to petition, with Shakespeare at the expert commentary as we were taken have to go to London to learn about Globe and Christopher Marlowe at the from site to site.

If you would like future issues of our magazine The Colchester The annual subscription rates are as follows: Archaeologist sent to you direct, then why not consider joining Adults and institutions £3.50 the Friends of the Colchester Archaeological Trust? The Family membership £4.50 Friends of the Colchester Archaeological Trust is a group Children and students £2.50 which exists to keep interested members of the public in touch with the work of the Trust in and around the historic town of Colchester. Members receive a yearly magazine, attend an If you want to join annual lecture about the previous year's work, are given con­ the Friends of the Colchester Archaeological Trust, ducted tours of current sites, and can take part in a programme your subscription should be sent to: of visits to archaeological sites, museums, historic buildings Maureen Jones, Honorary Treasurer, and ancient monuments in the Colchester area and beyond. the Friends of the Colchester Archaeological Trust, 5 Ashwin Avenue, The Colchester Archaeologist is published with funds provid­ Copford, ed by the Friends. Essex C06 IBS

32 only joking...

The four fragments of one glass chariot race cup found by the Trust at Balkerne Lane. Acknowledgements The Trust's replicas of some of the doctor's' grave goods were Victorious Olympus made by several craftsmen: the medical instruments were made by Four joining fragments of pale yellow-green Bill Corduroy in Norfolk, the wooden gaming board by Brian Foukes glass from a mould-blown chariot race cup at Leavenheath, and the glass counters by Mark Taylor & David were found on the Balkerne Lane site in 1976, Hill. Silversmith Mark Munson at Ardleigh made the strainer bowl in a deposit of dumped material under a and the fittings for the gaming board. Roman house. The dumped material dated to immediately after the Boudican revolt in AD 60/1. The deposit incorporated much burnt building debris, showing that the cup was Celtic warrior almost certainly in use at the time of the dis­ Do you enjoy 1st century BC/AD aster, and that it was owned by someone who lived in a house fronting on to the south side ESSEX PAST? of the main street leading westwards out of town towards London and the west. It may have been smashed during the revolt, when * Excursions and events the house was perhaps wrecked by native Britons as they destroyed the town. * Newsletters The design has been used as the Trust's logo almost since the discovery of the frag­ * Journal Essex Archaeology and History ments twenty years ago. The fragment shows the triumphant Olympus, having just won his * Research: 'Essex place-names project' race against three other competitors lerax, Pyramus, and Eutycus. He holds up a wreath * Extensive archaeological library in his right hand and has a palm branch extending behind his left shoulder as symbols * Annual 'Morant' lecture of victory. The reins of his team of four horses are in his left hand. Each of the animals has a * Annual 'Morant' dinner bent and raised left forelock as if walking slow­ ly or standing still. The chariot is quite * Publications fund detailed; the wheels have four spokes and the body is woven as if of wickerwork. At least 24 other examples of this design of cup have been found in Europe, five of these then join... in Britain (at York and London). The design and inscription of the Colchester cup are care­ fully and clearly modelled. A Roman racing driver Olympus also appears on three frag­ ments of similar but different cups also found The Essex Society for in Colchester (from Balkerne Lane, the Gilberd Archaeology and History School, and the Head Street Post Office). Colchester Archaeological Trust Membership details from:

J. Kemble, Dept. CA, 27 Tor Bryan, Ingatestone, Essex.

Registered charity no 213218 33 New Roman toy? the stacking counters Children today are used to playing with a wide variety of brightly-coloured toys — and plenty of them too. Few of our children are likely to be impressed with the rather basic Roman toy recently found on the Mercury Theatre site.

However, some things never change, and instinctively they would play with the toy in just the same way as Roman children would have done many years ago. Modern toys, particularly those for young children, are designed to help with physical and personal develop­ ment as much as entertain and amuse. These stacking counters would have helped develop children's hand-eye co-ordination and shape-sorting skills, although we can­ not say if Romano-British parents would have seen the toy in quite this way.

Pottery discs Round discs of pottery are often found on archaeologi­ cal sites and archaeologists have long been puzzled over what they were for. Various uses have been proposed for them, such as reckoning counters, weights, counters for hopscotch or large board games, counters which were thrown as a part of an outdoor game, pottery lids, and even table mats for hot pans! However, the remarkable examples from the Mercury Theatre site provide one convincing explanation for these mysterious objects They make a set which neatly stacks to make a tall cone, just like a set of stacking bricks which a young child might play with. Of course, there is no way of telling if these particular counters were made as a child's toy, but it is hard to resist the conclusion that they were. The counters were made from broken grey-ware pot­ tery. Bits from large vessels were chosen so that the cur­ vature would be slight and easy to eliminate. Each piece was chipped into the shape of a rough circle. The sides were then ground smooth and the curved parts of the faces ground flat. At least two of the counters were reused pottery bases so that less work was needed to convert them. Eighteen counters were found. Eleven of them form the stacking set, although it seems as if there must have been at least two more which fitted between the second and third largest of the counters. They are probably 4th or early 5th century in date.

The stacking counters from the Mercury Theatre in Colchester

Colchester Archaeological Trust

34