The Origins and Archaeology of London
Yesterday I gave an archaeology walk around London concentrating on the Origins of London. A lot to get into one walk and also I still had the myths and legends in my mind so a bit of that seeped in too. In the end only got to Guildhall and did not get to the intended end point which was St Aphage.
Most interesting thing I discovered is that one of the summaries of excavations from Walbrook House suggests that MOLAS found a large fortified enclosure around a Roman conquest period military zone. These were evidenced by N-S v-shaped ditches one had late iron pottery in it. The report goes on to suggest this could be the boundary of the early City. Not sure which side of the Walbrook the site was .
I emailed Nick Bateman about it and he tells me the date of the ditches are 43-50 AD so not necessarily 43 AD as the summary suggested, but it does seem to imply a defended early settlement on the Cornhill with its western boundary on the east bank of the Walbrook. I'd like to see a diagram of the proposed defenses - does it relate to the ankle breaker found, all those years ago in Aldgate? How does it relate to the ankle-breaker ditches found at New Change and what about the compound of round houses in Gresham Street?
Most interesting thing I discovered is that one of the summaries of excavations from Walbrook House suggests that MOLAS found a large fortified enclosure around a Roman conquest period military zone. These were evidenced by N-S v-shaped ditches one had late iron pottery in it. The report goes on to suggest this could be the boundary of the early City. Not sure which side of the Walbrook the site was .
I emailed Nick Bateman about it and he tells me the date of the ditches are 43-50 AD so not necessarily 43 AD as the summary suggested, but it does seem to imply a defended early settlement on the Cornhill with its western boundary on the east bank of the Walbrook. I'd like to see a diagram of the proposed defenses - does it relate to the ankle breaker found, all those years ago in Aldgate? How does it relate to the ankle-breaker ditches found at New Change and what about the compound of round houses in Gresham Street?
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