'Entire streets' of Roman London uncovered
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Experts uncovering a 2,000-year-old Roman tiled floor [Credit: Museum of London Archseology] |
Archaeologists expect the finds, at the three-acre site, to provide the earliest foundation date for Roman London, currently AD 47. The site will house media corporation Bloomberg's European headquarters.
It contains the bed of the Walbrook, one of the "lost" rivers of London, and features built-up soil waterfronts and timber structures, including a complex Roman drainage system used to discharge waste from industrial buildings.
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View to northwest of the Bloomberg Place site, recording a 4th century Roman timber well [Credit: Museum of London Archseology] |
'Beautifully preserved'
Museum of London archaeologists (MOLA), who led the excavation of the site, say it contains the largest collection of small finds ever recovered on a single site in London, covering a period from the AD 40s to the early 5th Century.
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A Roman woven straw basket, found preserved within a pit [Credit: Museum of London Archseology] |
More than 100 fragments of Roman writing tablets have been discovered. Some are thought to contain names and addresses, while others contain affectionate letters.A wooden door, only the second to be found in London, is another prize find.
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An amber amulet in the shape of a gladiator's helmet was discovered [Credit: Museum of London Archseology] |
The site also includes a previously unexcavated section of the Temple of Mithras, a Roman cult, which was first unearthed in 1954.
The preserved timber means that tree ring samples will provide dendrochronological dating for Roman London, expected to be earlier than the current dating of AD 47.
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A gold Roman brooch is just one of the 'treasures' discovered under the streets of London [Credit: Museum of London Archseology] |
Once Bloomberg Place is completed in 2016, the temple and finds from the excavation will become part of a public exhibition within Bloomberg's headquarters.
Source: BBC News Website [April 09, 2013]
I wonder if these archaeologists have been to a sports event,children have a tendency towards wanting anything to do with their hero's and the event big foam rubber fingers ,hats shaped like cheese, why I have actually seen them wearing football helmets of their favorite teams as pendents on a chain around their neck. I really don't think they wear them as an amulet of protection.I do however believe that we often try to attribute supertious and ritualistic reasons where there are none to relics from the past.
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