Colchester Archaeological Trust

CAT Report 297: summary

An archaeological evaluation at the rear of 17-18 Osborne Street, Colchester, Essex: April 2004
by Crossan, C

Date report completed: 11/11/2004
Location: Colchester town centre, Essex
Map reference(s):
File size: 1101 kb
Project type: Evaluation
Significance of the results: *
Keywords: animal bone, ceramic building materials, Roman wall-plaster, small finds, coins, medieval, post-medieval, tessellated pavement

Summary. Two evaluation trenches were excavated at the rear of 17-18 Osborne Street. Intact Roman levels were found to survive at depths of 1.0m-1.35m below the modern ground surface. These included a sequence of gravel layers and structural features in the form of a clay floor with an associated beam-slot and post-holes. The available dating evidence suggests that most of the intact Roman features are early, probably belonging to the 1st century AD. The medieval and post-medieval periods were represented by pits and dumped material. The absence of structures belonging to these later periods is unlikely to be significant here, since the trenches lie at some distance behind the frontages of any known streets of the time.