Lift Going Down: Roman Finds at Dyers' Hall describes the remarkable series of deposits and finds recovered within excavations for a new lift shaft at Dyers Hall, Dowgate Hill, the in City of London. You can find the article in the Spring 2021 edition of London Archaeologist, here - https://www.londonarchaeologist.org.uk/current-issue.html
Excavation recorded a sequence of archaeological deposits 2.5m deep, mainly of Roman date. The three stages of investigation were located in a former white wine cellar in the basement level of the building. They comprised Assessment (Research) monitoring of geo-technical test pits (evaluation[i]) and investigation during the construction stage (Mitigation[ii]). Abrams Archaeology extend thanks to the Worshipful Company of Dyers (https://www.dyerscompany.co.uk/), for whom the works were carried out. We are grateful to Tom Evans, Head of Property (Company of Dyers) for his support and assistance through the fieldwork and post-excavation process. The works were required by Planning Condition 3 (Permission 18/01268/FULL) covering a series of works to the Dyers Hall, of which the lift shaft excavations were one part.
Roman occupation of this site is interesting as it lies immediately adjacent (east of) the Walbrook River. The land was understood to have been in the estuary of the Walbrook until relatively recently. Buildings were not documented here until this investigation recorded them. They lay in many layers, as occupation was over several centuries and comprised masonry and timber structures. The remains of several schemes of painted wall plaster were found, including one collapsed wall, with a section of wall plaster shattered and lying, compressed where it fell.
Many artefacts were removed during excavations and details will be in the article in London Archaeologist (due out Spring 2021). Of national importance was an exquisitely carved cornice in Purbeck marble, thickly painted red on three sides with the iron pigment haematite (see Plate below), only the second provincial example of this rock to have surviving paint[iii]. Quarried, supplied and carved in enormous quantities throughout the southern half of the province from as early as AD50s, shelly dense Purbeck marble was the material of choice in Neronian and Flavian provincial carving, monumental[iv] and funerary inscription because of its ability to take polish, inscribe and here forming a base for the application of paint. It is clear that the building to which it belonged was very early indeed and opulent, the fortuitous preservation of the paint must be down to its short period of use.
Photograph by Pre-Construct Archaeology. This shows a nationally important and exquisitely carved cornice in Purbeck marble (1st Century AD)
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