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THE EXCAVATION
Work this year was carried out again to north and west of the
1962-3 areas with the aim of (a) completing the plans
of the second and third bath buildings, and (b) recovering the
plan of the earliest bath building found partly under its
successors.
As a result, two further periods of occupation of the site
have been established, antedating the earliest baths, and this
has necessitated both re-numbering the periods of occupation
and a partial revision of the tentative dating suggested in
the earlier reports.
Period I, to c. A.D. 55: The Ditch
A short length of ditch (Fig. 3, Sections C-D, Layer 4,
and G-H, Layer 4), was exposed below the granary and this
constitutes to date the earliest known occupation of the site.
This ditch was found to be some 6 feet in width; neither its
true width nor its depth are at present known as later
building over the ditch has meant some loss of both depth and
width. V-shaped in profile, the ditch was cut into the subsoil
and was found filled with domestic refuse including many
oyster-shells, bones, etc., and a large amount of pottery,
both imported and of local manufacture. One or two post-holes
were observed at irregular intervals where posts had been
driven into the subsoil; if others had existed, the posts had
not penetrated beyond the filling of the ditch.
The purpose and the full dimensions of this ditch are not yet
known, but the most likely interpretation, on the basis of
known archaeological evidence, is that it may have enclosed a
Belgic type of homestead further to the west and served it as
an open boundary ditch, which was eventually filled with
domestic rubbish and clay and may have had a fence erected
over its line. Certainly, the pottery contained both in the
primary and the secondary fillings shows marked pre-Roman
characteristics, but included some Romano-British material as
well, which suggest that the ditch remained open for a few
years after the conquest.
Period II, c. A.D. 55-65: The Granary
Excavation below the opus signinum floors of Rooms
47 and 59, the corridor giving access to the laconicum and
thence to the rest of the earliest baths, revealed first a
short length of foundations and eventually the complete plan
of a small barn or granary (11 by 19 feet 3 inches),
constructed partly over the filled-in Period I ditch (Plate
IIA). Owing to the subsequent demolition for the building of
the first baths, very little of the upper courses of the walls
of this granary remained, but the method of construction was
quite evident.
Construction trenches for the five short walls of the granary
were cut into the subsoil and partly into the filling of the
Period I ditch |