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Excavations at Alchester, 19271

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

J. H. Iliffe
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Extract

The excavation of Roman Alchester, begun in 1925—6 under the auspices of the Oxford branch of the Classical Association, was continued for nearly four weeks during August and September, 1927. The object of this year's work being to discover something of the plan and lay-out of the town in its successive periods, the region selected for this purpose was the vicinity of the east gateway of the town, and several points along the line of the rampart between that and the north-east corner mound.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , April 1929 , pp. 105 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1929

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References

page 105 note 2 Owing to a rise in the water level in more recent times, and the unusually wet season, considerable difficulties were experienced from flooding, and that the earliest period ditches and their contents could be examined at all was largely due to the kindness of Lady Cynthia Slessor, of Middleton Stoney Park, who with great generosity allowed us the use of her steam fire-pump for as long as we needed it.

page 107 note 1 Vide, Antiq. Journ., vii, 1927, p. 164Google Scholar, and pl. xxviii, section JKL.

page 110 note 1 The following abbreviations are made use of in the text:

Antiq. Journ. The Antiquaries Journal.

1926 Report. Excavations at Alchester, by C. F. C. Hawkes, in the Antiquaries Journal, vol. vii, no. 2.

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page 113 note 1 Cf. May, Silch., p. 99; Richb., 1926, pp. 89–91.

page 114 note 1 It is possible just to state here, as a result of the work done in 1928, that these ditches are flat-bottomed; they appear again under the N.E. ‘corner tower’. The unusually dry summer of 1928 enabled them to be exposed and examined.

page 116 note 1 The suggestion that the ditches are drainage gutters associated with the road would seem to be untenable; they were filled in when the roadway was built. They recall certain native villages in the Fens, which have a network of such ditches, in which case they may be a relic of pre-Roman occupation. The strength of the cemented road was such that, when the water caused the contents of the ditches to fall in from the sides of the trench, the roadways remained intact, spanning the ditches like a bridge.

page 118 note 1 Cf. the human remains found at the south-east corner of the site in excavating in 1776 (Hawkes, in Antiq. Journ., vii, 156, note 7).

page 120 note 1 The pottery and small objects have been presented to the Ashmolean Museum.

page 123 note 1 Dr. Oswald has been kind enough to express an opinion on this and several other pieces.