Redevelopment of Paternoster Square in 2000-2001 provided the
opportunity to reassess 1960s work at the site and review Roman activity
on the western hill, south of the main east-west road from London to
Silchester. Natural stream channels recorded at Paternoster and nearby
sites drained south-westwards towards the Fleet river, rather than to
the Thames as had been previously thought. The earliest Roman activity
was associated with the c.AD 50 establishment of the main road,
contemporary quarries and boundary ditches. One ditch contained two
young male inhumation burials and a dog skeleton. Rudimentary buildings
south of the road may have been briefly used during initial construction
activity. Clay and timber strip buildings along the south side of the
main road, and secondary roads leading southwards, date to the
pre-Boudican period. The roads and roadside properties were
re-established after the Boudican fire. Late 1st-century buildings
included residential, commercial and small-scale industrial activities.
Two 2nd-century kilns may be associated with brass making and include a
crucible. Glassworking debris and furnace material was probably
redeposited from nearby. Post-Hadrianic occupation included substantial
buildings with tessellated floors and painted plaster walls set back
from the roads. Activity declined in the later Roman period and five
4th-century burials cut into a disused secondary road. The southwest
part of the site was largely external, with evidence for animal
husbandry and bread wheat preparation, rare within Roman contexts. The
large assembly of pre-Boudican pottery and other finds from the site
includes Lyon ware and types of hinged brooches often associated with
the military. A copper-alloy name-tag identified an auxiliary soldier,
probably from the lower Rhineland or Cologne, and the early animal bone
assemblage was made up of high status kitchen waste of the sort produced
by army supply trains, but the overall evidence could indicate a civil
context which includes some military involvement.
