Work to give 21st-century London yet another skyscraper has uncovered traces – in fact chunks – of the city’s origins almost 2,000 years ago.
Advertisement
Archaeologists exploring the site of a planned 32-storey office tower announced Thursday that they have unearthed the remains of a Roman basilica that once stood at the heart of the city known as Londinium.
Excavations in the basement of a building slated to be demolished for the tower at 85 Gracechurch Street uncovered flint, brick and ragstone walls and foundations, up to 1 metre (over 3 feet) wide, 4 metres deep.
Sophie Jackson of Museum of London Archaeology called it “one of the most significant discoveries” in years in London’s oldest quarter, the City – the square-mile financial district where modern glass high-rises stand atop the remnants of Victorian, medieval and even earlier structures.
What’s been uncovered are the foundations of a two-storey building, almost as big as an Olympic swimming pool. It was constructed between 78 and 84 A.D., about three decades after Roman troops invaded Britain and some 20 years after forces of the Celtic warrior queen Boudicca sacked the fledgling settlement.
Advertisement
The basilica was part of the forum, the social, political and commercial heart of Roman London, where people went to shop, mingle, seek justice and hear the latest edicts from political leaders. The newly discovered remains are believed to form part of the tribunal, a raised area of the forum where politicians and officials made decisions about the city’s governance.