Roman Road - Silchester to Old Sarum

[Alflav]

Hello all, just stumbled across this site and I've had a general troll around. It seems like a good place to post something I've found - I hope it is of interest.

 

As part of an archaeological dig planned for the summer, I've been tasked with researching the Roman Road leading from Calleva (Silchester) to Old Sarum (Salisbury).

 

(This is a very amateur capacity, my main job was to check O/S records to see how the route found itself on modern maps)

 

Since I live near the supposed route of the Roman road, I attempted to follow the route. From reading several books on the subject I was drawn to an agger that is partially visible in a field.

 

I had a little explore and very close to this agger, and in-line with the O/S marked route, I found a few things of interest.

 

Namely, what appears to be a structure of some kind. This follows the angle of the agger in the nearby field. There is also a number of rocks, and general material which from my untrained eyes could either be chunks of Roman road or...the result of modern fly-tipping.

 

I've taken a number of photographs of the general area in question, and a few interesting item that were there.

 

Superfluous amounts of photographs await via the link below. The photographs are far from visually appealing, but hopefully helpful in the process of identifying what this all is.

 

Any help or views would be very appreciated!

 

View photographs

[Melvadius]

It is difficult to say anything conclusively as there is no fixed scale in your images. I would agree that several of the earlier images of large blocks appear more likely to be modern conglomerate blocks possibly of concrete (and one at least more like tarmacadam) so unlikely to be part of the original Roman road.

 

Images taken where water has cut through archaeology are notoriously bad at initial interpretation (until a 'clean' cross-section cut has been created) especially if material has been scattered over a wide area but the size of cobbles in the image look plausible as part of the Portway. Gravel is also a material that would have been used in the construction by the Romans so again may be remain of a road surface but both could also be from later Medieval activity.

 

Regarding your mystery object you haven't said if it is metal or slate. The flaking and possible puncture hole for a nail makes it look more like a broken slate or stone 'tile' possibly much smaller than it would have been originally. On the other hand if it is metal it looks too big to have been part of armour so may be a broken piece of agricultural equipment again if so probably more likely to be modern.

 

BTW Who is running the excavation?

[GhostOfClayton]

I'll qualify my answer by saying that I have no technical knowledge or education, but I have seen an awful lot of Roman stone in various uses and states.

 

The mortared rubble/cobbles: These would be from a layer known as the Audit (though I'm sure not all Roman Roads were built to an absolute standard throughout the entire length, breadth and time of the Empire). However, to my untrained eye, the mortar looks too new (and sophisticated), especially (as Melvadius has said) beside a watercourse. Some of the later shots of possible audit material might just look old enough, but they seem to match the large (how large?) mystery slab, which seems to have some quite flat surfaces still on it. If you're interested, Housesteads are running a long term experiment on the aging and weathering of various different Roman mortars.

 

Regarding the mystery item, it could be anything including a bit of old slate that happens to have eroded that way. Top tip, though: whenever you take photos in a scientific/archaeological context, put something of a known size in shot. We don't know the size of the slate, and that could be key. Sorry - just seen the later shot of the object in your hand - unless you're some kind of giant.

 

The photo you describe as gravel looks 'tarmac'y from the photo. How well is it bonded?

 

Modern Road? photos. Looks like it to me. And the gravel photos look like they come from that same tarmac wearing course.

 

Large black stone: Looks like bitumen that has flowed into that shape. Waste material from the modern road wearing course.

 

Looking towards Pamber: There's a distinct raised linear feature of a not unsuitable width - if it coincides with the extrapulated line of the road it's likely to be of interest.

 

I'm assuming you're working round here somewhere?