Archaeologists unearth a nearly intact and carefully engineered well of the Late Roman period in UK

Updated on: Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Archaeologists have unearthed a nearly intact and carefully engineered well, belonging to the Late Roman period, in the UK.

The well, which is thought to have been in use for several decades in the late 4th and early 5th centuries, was found during archaeological excavations on the site of the University of York's campus expansion at Heslington East.

The well may have had significance in contemporary local agricultural cycles and fertility practices. This Late Roman feature was positioned high on a hillside and used newly acquired, good quality masonry.

The research published in the journal Internet Archaeology reported that the well's main structure featured facing stones of newly quarried, roughly squared, oolitic limestone blocks, probably from a source near Malton, 30km to the north east.

Curved on their outer surface, the stones were set in carefully defined, regular courses. The base of the well was dish-shaped and composed of triangular limestone slabs set directly on natural clay.

The engineering employed suggests an intimate understanding of the subsoil. The masonry lining did however incorporate a former roof finial, the only element from any earlier structure to be reused.

The excavation team from the Department of Archaeology at York said its recycling is best interpreted as symbolic rather than opportunistic.

The well contained more than a 1000 pieces of Romano-British pottery, including two almost complete Huntcliff type jars, and a similar number of animal bone fragments.

These featured sheep, cattle, horse, deer and even a young dog. A high proportion of the bones showed signs of being butchered but were not highly fragmented, in contrast to the domestic waste encountered on the rest of the site.

Steve Roskams, Senior Lecturer from the university, said, "It is striking that all of the material found in our well would have been familiar to those inhabiting this landscape. Its construction incorporates a finial which, we argue, probably came from the dismantling of a nearby, good quality structure."

"The jars circulated here widely, the Huntcliff type probably being connected directly to water usage. The other pottery and the animal bones also comprise well-understood 'mundane' elements that were available locally.

"At the same time, there is sufficient evidence to indicate that some of this fairly ordinary material was deliberately placed in the well as symbolic performance.

"When interpreting such practices, archaeologists often concern themselves with whether they belong to 'Roman' or 'Iron Age' traditions.

"However, if we are to understand these forms of routine ritual fully, we would do better to look to local agricultural cycles and fertility practices, whether annual, generational or longer-term transitions," he said.

Archaeologists unearth a nearly intact and carefully engineered well of the Late Roman period in UK

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