| Abstract: |
Reports on sites in the north-eastern sector of Roman Chelmsford, which together form a coherent group. The excavated sites either lie between or include two parallel metalled roads running eastwards from the main London-Colchester road. All lie outside the earthen defences of the town, constructed c AD 160--175 and levelled c AD 200--220. Within the area bounded by the two roads (? an insula), the main area, Site K, contained a fourth century octagonal masonry Romano-Celtic temple, though its walls had been almost wholly robbed in the sub-Roman and medieval periods. The site appears to have had religious significance from the first century AD, and part of a building with masonry foundations has been interpreted as a first century temple. This building lay within an enclosure defined by ditches and many brooches and other copper alloy objects were associated. A subsequent building of Hadrianic date must have occupied the northern frontage of the southern road, and provides a date for its construction. The site appears to have been deserted from the fifth century until the thirteenth, when there was a possible dyer's establishment on Site K. The Late Roman and post-Roman subsoils were badly truncated by flooding soon after the mid thirteenth century which deposited a deep alluvial silt. By the end of the sixteenth century, the area was under cultivation. Includes reports on `The Roman coins' by Richard Reece (65--9) with a `Summary' by R Reece, N Wickenden & R Kenyon (69--71), `Silver buckle' by V I Evison (71), `The brooches' by S A Butcher (71--3), `Objects of copper alloy' (73--80) incorporating `Metal analyses' by Paul Wilthew (73), `The metalworking debris' by J G McDonnell (82), `The Roman pottery' (92--115) including `The samian' by W J Rodwell (92--3), `The other pottery' by C J Going (93--115) and `The faunal remains' by R M Luff (116--24). Au(adp) |
