Britain’s only known Roman chariot-racing circuit, described as one of the most important sites in the country, risks being lost under a housing project unless campaigners can raise the cash to preserve it in time.
Traces of the huge track were unearthed by archeologists in the city of Colchester in late 2004.
They discovered the elliptical track and key parts of the structure which would have held rows of tiered stone seating, during a routine survey for builders seeking to redevelop a Victorian army barracks and associated garden.
“The circus in Colchester is the only one in Britain, so it’s very rare,” said Philip Crummy, director of Colchester Archaeological Trust, who found it.
“It’s a big old building. It’s the biggest known building in Roman-Britain — it really is an extraordinary discovery,” he said.
It is one of only a handful of chariot-racing tracks ever to be found in the former northwestern provinces of the empire, and the first to be found in the last 20 years, he said.
Bryan Walters, director of the UK’s Association for Roman Archaeology, has called the discovery “one of the most important Roman sites ever found in Britain.”
In a letter to a local newspaper he appealed for more time to raise the necessary funding to buy the site.
“If it is lost, it will scar the reputation of Colchester and probably the developers nationally,” he wrote.
Only part of the track, 450m long and capable of holding 15,000 spectators, has been excavated.
The rest, which Crummy says he has accurately mapped, disappears under roads, gardens and buildings.
Built in the 2nd century BC, archeologists believe it fell out of use in the 3rd century, with many of its constituent materials incorporated into other buildings.
In September last year, the developers, Taylor Wimpey, offered a local community consortium six months to raise funds to buy the barracks and garden to preserve and display the remains underneath.
Efforts to raise the money needed, about £900,000 (US$1.4 million), before the end of this month have been going on ever since.
If the deadline is missed the property will be sold and converted into eight houses.
But Crummy said a massive local appeal had been launched to raise £220,000 of the total and he was optimistic the grand target would be hit with commercial and charitable donations.
“The actual remains of the circus are protected. What we are trying to do is to display [a main part of it] ... rather than simply let it be buried,” Crummy said.
The army building, known as the Sergeants’ Mess, sits on top of remains of all eight of the circus’ starting gates — stone structures with wooden doors that would have unleashed the chariots at the start of the race.
“We see this as an important step in a long-term plan to try and re-integrate the site and to make much more of it as something to visit as a feature of the Roman town,” Crummy said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS