HISTORY IS A MANY-LAYERED CAKE

1. Highways, parking lots, high rises, housing developments, and su­permarkets – re-development projects of all kinds are threatening the buried outposts of the Roman Empire in England. Modern construction invariably begins by scraping off and churning up the precious eight feet of topsoil where ancient history is interred.

2. It is tiny trowels and brushes against bulldozers and pile drivers as archaeological crews dig and sift to rescue their finds from the modern invaders. Construction companies seem deter­mined to cover the British Isles with concrete and glass cereal boxes.

3. That is why the work of a few professional archaeologists like Christina Colyer and their amateur helpers is so important.

4. While observing the digs I did some research to learn more about the many-layered cake beneath my feet. Recorded history in Britain began with the invasion of Emperor Claudius in A. D. 43. The original legionary fortress in Lincoln was established in about A. D. 61. Britain was the first major province added after Emperor Augustus created the Roman Empire.

5. Together with Colchester and Gloucester, Lincoln was one of the three veteran colonies in Roman Britain. As Lincoln flour­ished and spread down the hill toward the River Witham, its original walled area of 41 acres grew to 97 acres. The original walled fortress had four gates. Two of these, the East Gate and the North Gate, still exist.

6. By A. D. 71 changes in the frontier defense system made the fortress obsolete and Lincoln was granted the status of a colonia, a chartered town in which Roman soldiers were settled after they retired.

7. An aqueduct brought drinking water from a source more than a mile away. The city had colonnaded streets and a unique stone-built sewage system. The Romans drained the fenland and opened it to cultivation. Lincoln became one of the finest cities in Britain.

8. During Roman occupation the native Britons labored as farm­ers, craftsmen and artisans. They used Roman coins, pottery and metal goods, and wore Roman fashions. An estimated 3000 people lived within the walls.

9. Miss Colyer's research indicates that all 97 acres were within the walls of the extended colonia by early in the second century. She is considering the possibility that these early colonia walls were evidence of civic pride rather than a means of defense. Later, in the fourth century, many cities built walls as protection against invaders.

10. But by A. D. 410 the Roman Empire had overextended itself, and the Roman legions were pulled out of Britain. Emperor Honorius told the British cities to defend themselves.

11. The Roman influence continued after the Saxons conquered the island and was still evident under the Danes. The Normans, in about 1066, were the last military invaders of England. Their major monument is the great medieval Lincoln Cathedral, which celebrated its 900th anniversary last year.

12. Each successive culture left remnants of itself under modern Lincoln. During the past 2000 years the ground level of much of the city has risen about eight feet. The strata below are like a raisin-filled layer cake. They contain coins, beads, jewelry, pottery, glassware, tools and buildings that can be retrieved by careful dig­ging.

13. Miss Colyer has had several sites under excavation in Lincoln in recent years.

14. A major site is the Lower West Gate where the new city office building was erected. Miss Colyer considers it to be the best pre­served Roman gate in the country. It is the first gate she found in the wall that was built to surround the extended colonia.

15. The Lower West Gate was probably used into the fifth cen­tury. One of the road surfaces produced coins of Theodosius (379-395) and Arcadius (395-408). Both towers in the newly ex­cavated gate were hollow, containing a room for the guard. The towers were built of reused material. One of the stones is carved with beautiful friezes that probably came from a temple. In some places the walls are as much as 15 feet high, with a base as wide as 16 feet, nine inches.

16. Modern archaeologists don't like to think about the havoc caused by greedy treasure hunters during the Victorian period. Organized digging methods were not introduced into England un­til the 1880s. Until then digs were treasure hunts in search of loot. Burial mounds were much sought after prizes. An English digger in 1771 proudly reported excavating 31 mounds in one day in search of treasure.

17. At the Flaxengate site, for example, the diggers have painstakingly uncovered three medieval town houses of 13th cen­tury vintage, literally a spoonful at a time. During the dig they found evidences of late Saxon ruins (tenth or 11th century). The crew was confident Flaxengate would eventually yield some inter­esting Roman finds.

18. Miss Colyer considers this site particularly important because it may indicate the existence of extensive Roman ruins beyond the walls of the extended colonia.

19. The Lincoln sites have yielded quantities of durable first and second century A.D. Samian ware. These were a standard, good quality tableware imported by the Romans from Italy, France and Germany. Samian ware has a distinctive orange glaze and was decorated by pressing stamps into the mold.

20. Native domestic pottery of the Roman period was also man­ufactured in Lincolnshire. Lincoln ware of the 14th century had a distinctive lead-based green glaze. Unglazed Shelly ware contained clay and crushed seashells, and served as tableware for the common people until the 15th century.

21. Since types, shapes and decoration of pottery changed with the period, such clues enable pottery finds to be correlated with a spe­cific period or culture.

22. Food pots were often reused as containers for the cremated bones of the deceased. Some crematory pots have been found at sites in Lincoln, although Roman law, for hygienic reasons, re­quired remains to be buried outside the walls.

23. Archaeological finds from previous digs in Lincoln are stored in a museum sponsored by the city and county. The building is the 13th century Greyfriar's, the earliest church of the Franciscan or­der now surviving in England.

TASKS:

1. Identify the main points of the text and summarize it in 5–7 sentences.

2. While rendering the contents of the text cover the following aspects:

a) the key threats of modern time to archeological heritage;

b) significance of Miss Colyer’s work;

c) archeological finds in Lincoln sites and their significance for understanding the early history of Britain;

d) the role of treasure hunters in the history of excavations and historical research;

e) the significance of various characteristics of pottery for a history researcher.

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