Watch Canterbury Archaeological Trust director Paul Bennett as he takes a virtual tour of the 'veritable palimpsest' that is the site at Blue Boy Yard.
12.30pmA Saxon cellar
The excavation of the late 18th-century cesspit that produced so many finds yesterday, including the human hair and lice (left), is complete. Two other pits, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, both of which cut through the Roman temple precinct surface layer, are also approaching final clearance. The Blue Boy Yard trench now resembles what Canterbury Archaeological Trust director Paul Bennett calls a 'veritable palimpsest' of intercutting periods of occupation.
The clearance of the pits leaves only a small section of the Roman surface undisturbed, but this can now be seen very clearly. The compacted gravel metalling of the most recent surface, which dates from about 350 AD, stands on top of a series of earlier surfaces, going back to the first in about 120 AD. This, in turn, stands on natural gravel. The various Roman courtyard layers are about 500mm thick altogether.
But there is another feature cutting through the Roman surface as well as the pits. Sitting below the 18th-century cesspit excavated yesterday, this has particularly excited Paul Bennett, since it represents the remains of a 10th-century cellared building – only the third structure of its type to have been found in Canterbury. There is a large rectangular cut, at the bottom of which three post holes have been found. These would have supported large vertical wooden posts. Boards would have been attached to them horizontally. The cellar, which was most likely used for food or other storage purposes, was probably reached via a trapdoor in the ground floor of the building. The ground floor itself would probably have been raised a little above the ground level of the day.
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Roman amphora findOne of the few Roman finds to have turned up in Blue Boy Yard is a fragment from an amphora (left).
Dr David Williams, of Southampton University's Department of Archaeology, specialises in amphorae, which are large, double-handed container clay vessels used by the Romans for transporting liquid commodities such as wine, olive oil and fish sauces.
'If you look at the distribution in England of the amphora,' says Dr Williams, 'you can tell if they have carried wine from Italy or France, olive oil from Spain, or fish products from Spain and Italy. This enables you to build a picture of the economy of the province by looking at these vessels so that you can tell the trade patterns of the time from them.'
The Blue Boy Yard fragment is from a southern Spanish globular amphora, which carried olive oil from the area between Seville and Cordoba – which is still famous for its olive oil today.
'These vessels were only made in the Mediterranean and surrounding areas,' says Dr Williams, 'and when they turn up on British sites, you know that they are imports.'
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Rain doesn't stop play
The storms that have swept across much of Britain for the past weekend finally hit Canterbury. The heavens open in a downpour that turns the dark earth of Blue Boy Yard even darker. But the excavation continues apace and finally begins to turn up Roman finds.
These include some large worked stone and two pieces of late Roman Samian ware. There is a variety of tufa stone – part of the Roman temple complex buildings appear to have been unearthed at last! The finds have come out of one of the rubbish pits, however, which cut through the original Roman surface. So they are almost certainly disturbed remains, probably dumped in the pit long after the Romans departed.
6.30pm
With the process of recording this complicated excavation well under way, all the digging has finished by the time the pagan enactors arrive with Tony Robinson and a goat in tow to recreate the sort of Roman religious ceremony that might have taken place here in the distant past.
Left – architectural stone quarried from northern France, probably belongs to the temple.
Right – white Roman marble from Carrara, Tuscany
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