Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 406: summary

An archaeological evaluation at Short Cut Road, Colchester, Essex: January 2007
by Brooks, H; Orr, K (with contributions from Benfield, S)

Date report completed: 01/02/2007
Location: Garrison, Colchester, Essex
Map reference(s):
File size: 393kb kb
Project type: Evaluation
Significance of the results: *
Keywords: post-medieval, Roman tile, Roman pottery, glass, demolition debris, domestic, insulae, painted wall-plaster, tesserae, robber trench

Summary. An archaeological trial-trenching evaluation of a site in Insula 2 of the Roman town found modern strata, drains and footings lying over a considerable depth of postmedieval soils. The highest significant archaeological horizons were generally Roman in date, and were found at depths ranging from 1.3m to 1.8m below present ground-level (ie the car-park surface). A significant quantity of Roman brick and tile and other building material found in residual contexts in the post-medieval soils shows that Roman buildings once stood here. They were presumably demolished by the medieval period at the latest, as is usually the case in Colchester. Historic maps indicate that this was an area of gardens in the post-medieval period. That fact, combined with the gradual infilling of buildings over the 18th to 20th centuries, would explain the depths of soil and the modern footings and drains found here.