Nine evaluation trial trenches were excavated in the staff car-parks and in between buildings at the Colchester Institute in August 2006. Three trenches were blank (T1a, 1b and 9) but the rest revealed Late Iron Age to 1st century AD features, typical of activity on the Sheepen site, including pits and ditches, a possible burial, a likely floor and wall to a building, a trackway and a possible continuation of the Sheepen underground aqueduct. Parts of the slope had been cut into to create a more level surface for car-parking. This recent activity had removed all archaeological deposits within one trench and some post-Roman layers within other trenches, but generally the archaeology survived well on the site. In some places, further to the east, archaeological features were buried under more than a metre of hillwash.<1> The stage 1 trial-trenched evaluation was undertaken in April 2006.<2>