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An ancient Roman basilica has been discovered below London's financial district
World
An ancient Roman basilica has been discovered below London's financial district
February 18, 20255:01 AM ET
By Willem Marx
An archaeologist is seen on a screenshot from a video of an excavation in the basement of a building on Gracechurch Street in London's financial district.
MOLA
Archaeologists in London have uncovered a section of Roman masonry that belongs to a nearly 2,000-year-old town hall, in what historians say is one of the most significant discoveries in the British capital since an ancient amphitheater was unearthed in the 1980s.
Developers working to tear down a 90-year-old commercial building in the heart of the city's financial district — officially known as the City of London, or "Square Mile" — worked with specialists from a team at the Museum of London Archaeology to reveal extensive masonry that once formed part of a basilica beside the forum of the Roman settlement known as Londinium. The settlement thrived for a few hundred years until its decline some 16 centuries ago. (Archaeologists are required to be involved in new British developments when there is concern about heritage, and were particularly aware of this area's potential historical significance).
In the basement of that commercial building on Gracechurch Street, surrounded by high-rise towers filled with financial and insurance firms, archaeologists began excavating large, exploratory pits two years ago until stone walls several feet thick and dozens of feet long were exposed.
"In one trench, we hit a massive piece of masonry — it was about three or four feet wide," says Sophie Jackson, director of developer services at the Museum of London Archaeology. "We extended the pit, and it kept on going. So basically, we got a huge piece of Roman wall, which represents part of the structure for the nave of this basilica, the central part of this town hall." ... Jackson says the Roman building known as a basilica was a crucial component of any sizeable Roman settlement of that era, much like an amphitheater, public bath or the fortified walls that ringed them.
{snip}
An ancient Roman basilica has been discovered below London's financial district
February 18, 20255:01 AM ET
By Willem Marx
An archaeologist is seen on a screenshot from a video of an excavation in the basement of a building on Gracechurch Street in London's financial district.
MOLA
Archaeologists in London have uncovered a section of Roman masonry that belongs to a nearly 2,000-year-old town hall, in what historians say is one of the most significant discoveries in the British capital since an ancient amphitheater was unearthed in the 1980s.
Developers working to tear down a 90-year-old commercial building in the heart of the city's financial district — officially known as the City of London, or "Square Mile" — worked with specialists from a team at the Museum of London Archaeology to reveal extensive masonry that once formed part of a basilica beside the forum of the Roman settlement known as Londinium. The settlement thrived for a few hundred years until its decline some 16 centuries ago. (Archaeologists are required to be involved in new British developments when there is concern about heritage, and were particularly aware of this area's potential historical significance).
In the basement of that commercial building on Gracechurch Street, surrounded by high-rise towers filled with financial and insurance firms, archaeologists began excavating large, exploratory pits two years ago until stone walls several feet thick and dozens of feet long were exposed.
"In one trench, we hit a massive piece of masonry — it was about three or four feet wide," says Sophie Jackson, director of developer services at the Museum of London Archaeology. "We extended the pit, and it kept on going. So basically, we got a huge piece of Roman wall, which represents part of the structure for the nave of this basilica, the central part of this town hall." ... Jackson says the Roman building known as a basilica was a crucial component of any sizeable Roman settlement of that era, much like an amphitheater, public bath or the fortified walls that ringed them.
{snip}