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Trench IV was located to see if the axial drain, known to run through the northern entrance, survived (and, if it did, whether it had any surviving fill deposits, as they were not sampled during the 1960s excavation). There was also the question of masonry fragments that were eroding through the gravel surface: were they part of the 1960s backfill or were they untouched archaeology? In fact, the masonry (seen to the left) was simply part of a backfill that included crisp packets and sweet wrappers (including a packet of Galaxy Minstrels with dual pricing – 6d and 2½p – showing that it dated from a few months before or after decimalisation on 15 February 1971). |
The Roman drain did survive. Unfortunately, it had been completely emptied during the 1960s excavations. However, two courses of the masonry lining were still in situ, with the possibility that there were three courses immediately to the north of the trench. The drain had been cut through the bedrock, and the base consisted of a shallow channel chased into the bottom of the cut.
As with the course of the axial drain across the arena, the Ministry of Works had decided to reuse the drain as it passed through the north entrance. The pipe clearly visible in the photograph (right) is modern concrete and identical to the land drains seen in Trenches II and III. One cause for concern in the archaeology of this trench was the shallowness of the gravel cover. The slope of the entrance has meant that the gravel and its sand base have gradually worked their way downhill. There is now a delta-like ‘fluvial outwash’ just inside the arena, beyond the stone threshold! |
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For a variety of reasons, this damp corner of the monument (damp because it is constantly in the shadow of the 1960s wall) is perhaps the most interesting bit of masonry currently visible. Trench V was designed to see if any deposits survive here that might shed some light on what exactly we are looking at.
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The results exceeded expectations in many ways. The trench lay immediately to the east of a concrete retaining wall put in for the display of the monument. This wall is located roughly where there were rock-cut steps in the Roman building and we had assumed that it was put there simply to prevent further wear to the badly worn steps. However, what we found was that archaeological deposits survived immediately beneath the gravel at the east end of the trench and that the western end had been backfilled with poorly consolidated stone and brick rubble. Visible in the edge of the original excavation was a complex stratigraphic sequence, which we left in situ. |
This trench leaves us with the chance to return at a later date and deal with some of the many research questions that remain.
The unconsolidated rubble gives us considerable cause for concern. The people who put it in place made no attempt to fill the gaps with sand or soil: there are huge air-filled voids between the material. The photograph (left) shows the material after only a minimal cleaning. The visible holes were already there and are not the result of over zealous cleaning. The excavators were unable to kneel on the material, as it shifted constantly under them; once it had been removed from the trench, the section was so unstable that it collapsed twice. |
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Although we backfilled carefully, laying rubble and soil deposits alternately, there nevertheless remains a danger that the area we did not excavate (about two-thirds of the width of the entrance at this point) will one day collapse.