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Digging up Roman gold in the City of London
Telegraph UK ^ | Thursday, April 11, 2013 | Harry Mount

Posted on 04/14/2013 9:56:15 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

The greatest find of Roman antiquities in London, just by Mansion House Tube station, owes its survival to a humble stream -- the River Walbrook. The brook doesn't run far -- from Finsbury, on the north edge of the City of London, before emptying into the Thames by Cannon Street railway station.

It has been used as a rubbish dump, covered over and thoroughly ignored for thousands of years but, still, Old Man Walbrook just keeps rolling away. And it is thanks to the Walbrook that some 10,000 objects from Londinium -- including an unprecedented haul of 250 leather shoes, pewter dinner plates and dozens of wooden writing tablets -- have survived in better condition than anywhere else in the Roman Empire. In the few weeks left of excavation, even more finds are bound to turn up.

What has emerged is a thickly packed development of long, strip buildings, with ovens, kilns and a mill, nestling up against a Roman temple; a bustling residential, religious and industrial mix. The teeming excavation site -- in the shadow of Bloomberg Place, where the European headquarters of the financial information empire are due to be completed by 2016 -- has already been dubbed the Pompeii of the North...

"There's an enormous collection of well-preserved shoes, and they're in all sizes. It's through simple things like that, that you find out important things -- whether or not children were living here. This was a very unstable city to begin with, with several rebellions, and you wonder whether the colonisers are bringing their families or not." Among the shoes there are several army boots -- "Some of the best-preserved in the Roman Empire," says Michael Marshall, "they're really, really great."

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; romanempire; unitedkingdom
Archaeologists working to unearth Roman artifacts from a construction site at Bloomberg Place in the City of London Photo: PA

Archaeologists working to unearth Roman artifacts from a construction site at Bloomberg Place in the City of London Photo: PA

1 posted on 04/14/2013 9:56:15 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
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http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/10/archeological-dig-beneath-bloombergs-future-london-headquarters-reveals-ancient-roman-ruins-dubbed-pompeii-of-the-north/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22084384

http://news.google.com/news/story?q=Bloomberg+Place


2 posted on 04/14/2013 9:57:36 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: Renfield; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks Renfield.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


3 posted on 04/14/2013 9:57:41 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: SunkenCiv
in the shadow of Bloomberg Place

That's somewhat ominous. Will Bloomie try to lay down retroactive dietary laws for the Romans?

4 posted on 04/14/2013 10:05:01 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: SunkenCiv

untouched Roman territory, 23 feet below modern ground level. And, as 3,500 tonnes of soil were removed by 60 archaeologists from the three-acre site, the finds poured forth, covering the entire Roman occupation of Britain – from 43AD to the early 5th century

...

That is the reason for global warming : as this part of London is now 23 feet closer to the sun ?


5 posted on 04/14/2013 10:11:37 AM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: SunkenCiv

“It has been used as a rubbish dump, covered over and thoroughly ignored for thousands of years but, still, Old Man Walbrook just keeps rolling away.”

WHAT? The REAL story here is that there’s a body of water NOT on the radar of the EnviroWeenies demanding some ‘Superfund’ funding! *SMIRK*


6 posted on 04/14/2013 10:15:26 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set...)
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To: SunkenCiv

“the River Walbrook”?? How dare these people disturb these wetlands. Quick, somebody call the English equivalent of the EPA!


7 posted on 04/14/2013 10:59:07 AM PDT by House Atreides
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

What’s wrong with a Superfund site? I live on a Superfund site.


8 posted on 04/14/2013 11:09:19 AM PDT by null and void (Republicans create the tools of oppression and Democrats use them. Gun confiscation enables tyranny.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Great post. It seems counter-intuitive that a site near water would protect organic stuff like paper, wood, and leather so much better than other sites, but apparently the sealing power of the mud from any access by oxygen is the key, just like in the bog sites.


9 posted on 04/14/2013 11:17:36 AM PDT by wildbill (You're just jealous because the Voices talk only to me.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Amazing finds! I hope all of it is well-researched and catalogued.

That’s an interesting Roman-era shoe. I am sure some fashion designer is taking notes. :)


10 posted on 04/14/2013 11:38:41 AM PDT by thecodont
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To: SunkenCiv

The phallic hawness symbol belonged to a vewy gweat fwiend of one of my ancestors in Wome. And anything made of gold. Handle them not woughly, I pway.
Biggis Dickis Handley-Smythe XXXXXVIII


11 posted on 04/14/2013 1:32:05 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: All armed conservatives.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Very cool. Thanks for the ping. Good old mud to the rescue for preservation.


12 posted on 04/14/2013 1:40:42 PM PDT by Bigg Red (Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved! -Ps80)
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To: SunkenCiv

So that’s where I lost the gold....


13 posted on 04/14/2013 6:06:40 PM PDT by Altariel ("Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!")
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To: Cicero
"That's somewhat ominous. Will Bloomie try to lay down retroactive dietary laws for the Romans?"

Just wait 'til Bloomberg's etymologists tell him the origin of the term, "salary."

14 posted on 04/14/2013 6:09:38 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Don’t tell him, or he’ll probably cut off all his workers’ pay.


15 posted on 04/14/2013 6:15:31 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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