Monument record 8719 - Early Roman soil deposits (pre-fortress), Hunter Street

<1> Oxford Archaeology North, 2022, Chester Northgate Redevelopment: Phase 1 Post-Excavation Assessment Report, R4690 (Client Report). SCH9431.

Evidence of early Roman soil deposits, pre-dating the foundation of the fortress, was recorded in 2020-1 during the excavation of a surface-water drainage trench, on the south side of Hunter Street, as part of the Northgate redevelopment scheme. A probable tree throw (402) was also recorded in this trench cutting into the surface of the natural geology.

The soil deposits comprised a few patchy layers of soil that lay directly above the natural geology and were cut by the earliest Roman features. A few of these (294, 350, and 357) were very similar in character to the underlying drift geology, being pale reddish/orange-brown or yellow-brown silty sands, c 80-120mm thick, and may represent the disturbed upper part of the natural material itself. Deposits 294 and 357 each yielded a single sherd of samian ware, datable to c AD 50-70 and c AD 70-110 respectively, and a potsherd possibly dating to the early/mid-second century came from 350. Whilst the latter is, perhaps, intrusive, 350 also produced a copper-alloy Nauheim derivative-type brooch (OR 440), datable to the period from circa AD 25 to the end of the first century AD. Given the total lack of evidence for Iron Age occupation within the areas investigated, an early Roman provenance for this object seems likely, although a late Iron Age origin cannot be discounted. Deposit 357 also produced a copper alloy locking key (OR 478).

Also recorded at several locales in the surface water drainage trench were dark grey-brown silty soils (in one case almost black), mostly 70-100mm thick (eg: deposits 323, 414). These are tentatively interpreted as remnant buried soils, possibly including turf, representing the old ground surface at the beginning of the Roman period. They survived only in very limited areas, and it is possible that, over much of the site, the turf and topsoil were largely removed during construction of the fortress, perhaps for use in the ramparts and other elements of the defences. Deposit 414 yielded three small samian sherds from a single vessel, dating to circa AD 50-110, and an early second-century greyware fragment. These, together with a few fragments of animal bone, may well have been ‘trampled’ into these soils at the beginning of the Roman period.

Similar buried soils, also thought to be early Roman in date, were recorded during preliminary archaeological works adjacent to Princess Street, in 2018 and 2019 (see CHER 8686 and CHER 8703).