Archaeology in British Towns: From the Emperor Claudius to the Black Death

256 Pages·1996·9.29 MB·English

by  Patrick Ottaway

ARCHAEOLOGY IN BRITISH TOWNS
ARCHAEOLOGY IN
BRITISH TOWNS
From the Emperor Claudius to the
Black Death
Patrick Ottaway
London and New York
First published 1992
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an International Thomson Publishing company
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands
of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 1992 Patrick Ottaway
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be
reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ottaway, Patrick.
Archaeology in British towns: from the Emperor Claudius to the
Black Death/by Patrick Ottaway.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Excavations (Archaeology)—Great Britain. 2. Cities and towns—
Great Britain—History. 3. Urban archaeology—Great Britain.
4. Great Britain—Antiquities. I. Title.
DA90.O86 1992
936.1–dc20 91–41071
ISBN 0-203-99004-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN (0-415-14420-5 (Print Edition))
To my mother, Mary and Nick with love
CONTENTS
List of illustrations vi
Preface ix
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations and dates xiii
1 ARCHAEOLOGY IN TOWNS 1
2 URBAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS AT WORK 15
3 EARLY ROMAN TOWNS 44
4 LATE ROMAN TOWNS 78
5 ANGLO-SAXON TOWNS 114
6 MEDIEVAL TOWNS 154
7 POSTSCRIPT—PRESENTING THE PAST TO THE PUBLIC 200
Notes 204
Bibliography 217
Index 238
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
1.1 Map of principal towns referred to
1.2 Reconstruction drawing of the forum of Roman London
2.1 John de Tytyng’s House, Winchester
2.2 Parson Gordon’s map of Aberdeen (1661)
2.3 Archaeological evaluation map of Worcester
2.4 Context recording card and plan from York
2.5 Archaeological section drawing from York
2.6 Plan and reconstruction of a fourteenth-century house on the Wytelard
property, Monkgate, Hull
3.1 Plan of the principal sites of the late Iron Age and Roman periods in the
Colchester area.
3.2 Plan of the Roman fortress and colonia at Colchester.
3.3 Reconstruction of the Balkerne Gate, Colchester.
3.4 Principal excavation sites in London
3.5 Plans of Roman London in AD 60 and AD 150
3.6 Strip buildings from London and Pompeii
3.7 Plan of Roman Canterbury
3.8 Reconstruction of Roman Canterbury
3.9 The Hyde Street Roman cemetery, Winchester, with plan inset of Roman
Winchester
4.1 Plan of the Roman colonia at York
4.2 Plan of the defences of Roman Exeter
4.3 Plan of Roman Lincoln
4.4 Reconstruction of the Colchester Roman church
4.5 A family burial of c. 400 at Canterbury
4.6 The ‘Old Work’ at Wroxeter
5.1 Plan of archaeological sites in Hamwic
5.2 Reconstruction drawing of Hamwic
5.3 Plan of late Anglo-Saxon Winchester c. 993–1066
5.4 Reconstruction of the Old Minster, Winchester
5.5 Plan of late Anglo-Saxon and medieval sites in Oxford
vii
5.6 Reconstruction of St Michael at the North Gate, Oxford, in Anglo-Saxon
times
5.7 Reconstruction of the Lower Bridge Street area, Chester, in late Anglo-Saxon
times
5.8 Plan of late Anglo-Saxon London
5.9 Plan of Anglian and Anglo-Scandinavian sites in York
5.10 Anglo-Scandinavian antler combs
5.11 Plan of late Anglo-Saxon sites in Norwich
5.12 Plan of the late Anglo-Saxon church and cemetery in the castle bailey,
Norwich
6.1 Iron tenterhooks from Winchester
6.2 Plan of medieval sites in Norwich
6.3 View of Hull by Wenceslaus Hollar (1640) with plan inset showing
excavation sites
6.4 Plan of Perth showing principal excavation sites
6.5 Reconstruction of the backyards of medieval Aberdeen
6.6 Diagram showing design on fourteenth-century silk textile from Perth
6.7 Reconstruction of The Hamel, Oxford
6.8 Plan of brick house on the Ousefleet property, Hull
6.9 Reconstruction of a Chester Row house
6.10 Medieval leather scabbards from London
6.11 Plan of Bristol with medieval sites
6.12 Plan of the church of St Helen-on-the-Walls, York
6.13 Plan of the Blackfriars, Oxford
Plates
1.1 The Roman Quay at Cannon Street Station
1.2 Southampton City Council’s archaeology logo
2.1 John de Tytyng’s House, Winchester
2.2 Anglo-Scandinavian cess pit at York
2.3 Late Anglo-Saxon pottery from Lincoln
2.4 Archaeological conservation in action
2.5 Anglo-Scandinavian knives from York
2.6 Tenth-century fly puparia from York
3.1 Remains of the fortress baths and forum basilica at Exeter
3.2 The Balkerne Gate, Colchester
3.3 Late-first-century quay at London
3.4 Wooden knife handle with negroid head from London
3.5 Huggin Hill Roman baths, London
3.6 Late-first-century cremation burial at Hyde Street, Winchester
3.7 Early-second-century cremation burial with an infant skeleton at Hyde
Street, Winchester
viii
4.1 Cross-section through second-century road-metalling at York
4.2 Roman stone building at Wellington Row, York
4.3 Late-second-century timber building at the General Accident, Tanner Row
site, York
4.4 Wall of a Roman public building at Queen’s Hotel site, York
4.5 West gate of the Lower Roman Town at Lincoln
4.6 Relief of Venus and Adonis from Lincoln
4.7 Sunken-floored huts at Canterbury
4.8 Roman relief figure on a jet plaque from York
5.1 The Six Dials site, Hamwic
5.2 Hamwic sceattas
5.3 The Coppergate helmet
5.4 The Winchester reliquary
5.5 The late Anglo-Saxon waterfront at Billingsgate Lorry Park, London
5.6 Tenth-century post and wattle buildings at 16–22 Coppergate, York
5.7 Tenth-century iron strap fittings from 16–22 Coppergate, York
5.8 Tenth-century woollen sock from 16–22 Coppergate, York
5.9 Anglo-Scandinavian human stool from Lloyd’s Bank, York
6.1 Cross-section of the thirteenth-century barbican ditch at Castle Mall,
Norwich
6.2 Fourteenth-century brickwork on the Beverley Gate, Hull
6.3 Fourteenth-century silk textile from Perth
6.4 The Norman house at St Martin-at-Palace-Plain, Norwich
6.5 Thirteenth-century fuller’s tenement at Lower Brook Street, Winchester
6.6 Twelfth-century timber waterfront at Thames Exchange, London
6.7 Twelfth-century ivory seal matrix of Snarrus the toll collector from York
6.8 Fourteenth-century dyer’s vat base from Bristol
6.9 Thirteenth-century river wall and slipway from Bristol
6.10 Saintonge Ware jugs from Southampton
6.11 Thirteenth-century ampulla from London
6.12 St Gregory’s Priory, Canterbury
6.13 Skeleton in a wooden coffin with other human bones from St Benedict’s
churchyard, York
7.1 Public entry to the Leadenhall Court site, London
PREFACE
Everyone relishes a secret, some little piece of knowledge which is reserved for
a chosen few. It is no surprise, therefore, that archaeology, which offers us the
chance of discovering the long-forgotten secrets of the past, has a perennial
attraction. In an urban context we can acquire the three-dimensional vision to
travel below the familiar townscape of today to a mysterious underworld of
decayed buildings, lost streets, ancient refuse tips and ghostly burial grounds. On
emerging from these nether regions the archaeologist brings back tales, a thousand
years old and more, of the men and women who made the modern city. They are
tales which are eagerly told, for while there is pleasure in having a secret it can
never compare with the pleasure of sharing it.
The idea for this book grew out of a series of evening classes I ran a few years
ago for the University of Hull, which were rather grandly entitled ‘British Towns:
The Archaeological Story’. The course attempted, first, to introduce students to
some of the principal discoveries made in urban archaeology between the late
1960s and the late 1980s and, second, to outline some of the principles and
problems of excavation in towns. As a period of economic downturn in Britain
has brought with it something of a lull in archaeological activity, the spring of
1991 seemed a good time to review the ideas I explored during the course and
commit some of them to print.
This is a somewhat unusual book about archaeology because it attempts to cross
the great intellectual divide which yawns so dauntingly between the study of the
Roman and post-Roman periods. My explanation for daring to leap from one side
to the other, however, lies in the peculiar environment in which urban
archaeologists work. Although most of my colleagues, guided by either choice or
circumstance, specialise in the study of a particular period of the past, becoming
Romanists, Anglo-Saxonists and so forth, the archaeologist in the fortunate
position of working in an historic town must be prepared to have a competence in
all the periods in which that site was occupied, from the mid-first century, or earlier
in some cases, to the present day. While unravelling the superimposed layers and
structures of the past, however, the urban archaeologist becomes a specialist of a
rather different kind, one who studies the development of a complex and
distinctive institution over many centuries. In the following chapters I have,
therefore, tried not only to describe archaeological discoveries on a period-by-