Third century Leicester viewed from the Northeast. The tallest building is the macellum, with Jewry Wall baths behind it. [illus. by Mike Codd]
Posted on 12/12/2015 10:23:29 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists, led by John Thomas and Mathew Morris of ULAS, have been investigating a series of medieval and post-medieval backyards dating from the 12th century through to the 16th century...
Evidence recorded includes stone-lined pits (possibly storage pits or cisterns), rubbish pits, latrines, wells, boundary walls and a possible late 15th or 16th century cellar. Such activity, and the evidence carefully collected and recorded from it, will give important new insights into the lifestyles and industry of the people living along one of Leicester's principle medieval streets...
The site lies at the heart of Leicester's historic core, close to significant Roman and medieval sites such as the Roman forum and the Jewry Wall Roman public baths as well as the site of Grey Friars, the medieval Franciscan friary where the remains of King Richard III (d.1485) were discovered by University archaeologists in 2012.
Once the medieval archaeology was painstakingly recorded and removed, evidence of Leicester's Roman past was slowly revealed. The junction of two Roman streets has been identified. These have thick, cambered gravel surfaces with drainage gullies dug to either side. A number of large stone and timber buildings, and boundary walls, dating from the 2nd century through to the 4th century have been identified running along the sides of the streets...
The broken remains of a mosaic pavement has been found in one building, whilst pieces of painted wall plaster still survived on the walls in another...
A wide array of artefacts have been recovered during the excavation, including coins, fine table ware, a copper spoon, game counters, a number of bone hair pins and other pieces of jewellery. This suggests that Roman activity in the area was predominately domestic in nature with some industrial activity going on in the vicinity in the later Roman period.
(Excerpt) Read more at 2.le.ac.uk ...
Third century Leicester viewed from the Northeast. The tallest building is the macellum, with Jewry Wall baths behind it. [illus. by Mike Codd]
by Matthew Morris, Richard Buckley, Mike Codd
300 ad Crowded and here I am always wishing I lived in the oh so countryish past.
I’ve been watching Time Team on YouTube recently also. Great show!
I thought everybody already knew the Romans were in Britain?
This may sound like a stupid question but ...
Archeology is all about literally uncovering the past. It almost always involves digging up artifacts or evidence of ancient practices, sometimes buried under several feet of soil.
My question: where does all this soil come from? Why does all this ancient evidence always seem to sink into the earth? What natural phenomena conspire to literally bury the past?
The cardo and decumanus?
Wind, water, and worms - predominantly.
Remember also, that most of plant growth is water, air and sunlight - only the small amount that remains of a tree after you’ve burnt it to ash is from the actual earth...so when plants overgrow something, they add organic material on top, and then collect blown dirt or mud. Then animals poopon top, and track dirt all around. Earthworms in particular keep piling little bits of soil on top of the surface.
Seems sketchy to me. Wouldn’t you think wind and rain would UNcover as much as it covered? And it seems like an awful lot of plant matter would have to accumulate to bury something under feet of soil. And what about areas that are only marginally fertile and don’t support much plant life?
I’m not disagreeing, but it just doesn’t feel like those factors would be enough to bury entire cities in a few thousand years.
There is un-burying as well. Entire areas where rock is scrubbed bare. In the geological record, these are called a palimpsest.
That said, dirt tends to collect around obstructions, and roots keep it from leaving. Organic matter remains attached and builds on itself.
Btw, 10feet over 2000 years is .06 inches per year. That’s pretty meager.
That’s pretty meager for 2000 years. But there are sites where artifacts less than 200 - 300 years old are buried deep. I would guess they’re in more overgrown areas with lush vegetation though.
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