Excavations at Verulamium, 1960

The sixth season at Verulamium lasted a period of five weeks from 20th July to 24th August 1960. As the last full season of the current programme, it was designed to test one or two specific questions and to complete work already begun. Trenches were cut in insulae XIX and XXVIII in an attempt to define the south-east and south-west sides respectively of the suspected Claudian fort, but met with no success. In insula XIV a small area still outstanding was excavated down to the level of the Antonine fire: in insula XXI further work was done on building 2, to complete the plan and to salvage some painted wall plaster still remaining. In insula XXVII the stoke-hole, added perhaps as late as the early fifth century to building 2, room 15, was examined and trenches were cut to trace the further course of the fifth-century pipe-line. The main task for 1960, however, was to test the results of the proton-magnetometer survey carried out in 1959, by cutting sections across the line thus suggested for the ‘1955 Ditch’. This was done at two points, the first in insula VIII and the second just south-west of insula V, and the existence of the earthwork on the course predicted was confirmed. Later in the autumn the north-west side of the enclosure was defined by a further magnetic survey by Dr. M. J. Aitken

Archaeology · Insula · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · History · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

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