Monument record MCC2136 - Roman building within Insula 2, Nunn's Road, Colchester

Summary

Roman masonry building with mosaic and tessellated pavements situated in the south-east corner of Insula 2, recorded in the area of Nunn's Road car park (Logarth House) in 1963/4.

Location

Grid reference TL 99488 25406 (point)
Map sheet TL92NE
County ESSEX
Non Parish Area COLCHESTER, COLCHESTER, ESSEX

Map

Type and Period (3)

Full Description

A 2nd century Roman masonry building of two phases situated in the south-east corner of Insula 2.

A Roman 'house' was recorded during excavations on the site of a new car park at 'Logarth', Nunn's Road (ECC951). The building which was planned was situated in the south-east corner of Insula 2 and included at least two rooms containing floors of plain red tessellated pavement.<1>

The building had been badly disturbed by 'all manner of digging ranging from modern and seventeenth century pits to shallow circular holes which may well have been Saxon hearths for some industrial working of which only the ash and slag remain' (MCC2140). The eastern room had been floored twice with coarse red tile tesserae but the western room with a similar floor, had in an earlier phase, comprised a corridor of tesserae and a room of tile fragments in mortar. 'This may, of course, have been a veranda with an enclosed courtyard as the floor appears too poor in quality to have been a dwelling room.' A robbed-out wall trench had been overlain by the upper floor and was probably associated with the earlier one.

Late Roman and Anglo-Saxon pottery was found on the later floors (see MCC2141). The floors had been laid upon a substantial make-up of yellow clay, 'probably daub of earlier timber house'. The building was separated from the north-south street to the east (MCC760) by an open area which may have been occupied by a footway or veranda although there was no evidence for either.<2>

The house was of at least two phases and contained tessellated and one mosaic floor. 'It is possible that this was a continuation of the house...behind No.18 North Hill, but it was not possible to establish this point'. The building overlay burnt levels of mid-first century date which were later revealed in builder's trenches and observed by Dunnett'.<3>

Sources/Archives (3)

  • <1> EXCAV REPORT: Colchester Excavation Committee. 1965. Challenge Accepted. Preliminary report on excavations in Colchester 1964-5.
  • <2> Unpublished document: Unknown. 1964. Colchester SMR file: 'Logarth, 1963/4'.
  • <3> DESC TEXT: Dunnett, B. Rosalind. K.. 1971. Inventory of Roman Colchester (unpublished MA thesis). Insula 2.

Finds (0)

Protected Status/Designation

  • None recorded

Related Monuments/Buildings (0)

Related Events/Activities (1)

Record last edited

Oct 21 2016 11:57AM

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