Abstract
FURTHER excavation on the Romano-British site at Colchester has revealed more fully the character and purpose of the remarkable enclosure and contained building discovered at Sheepen Farm on the banks of the Colne. The course of the northern wall has now been followed up, and the entire enclosure traced. It is found to be approximately rectangular in plan, except that the north-east corner has been deflected a distance of 155 ft., thus reducing the eastern face of the enclosure to a length of 180 ft. The total perimeter of the enclosing wall is roughly 511 yards. Further details of the enclosed building, of which the purpose is now evident, are given in a report which appears in The Times of September 3. A stepped stone plinth, five feet square, in the centre of which there still remains in situ the base of a column of Purbeck marble, 1 ft. 3 in. in diameter, has been found approximately in the centre and in contact with the eastern face of the outer wall of the temple. The steps on the southern face of the plinth still retain portions of the original plaster, and on one fragment of the latter there are faint traces of colour. It is suggested that the column and plinth may be the surviving evidence of an altar which once faced the entrance of the temple. Flanking the plinth to the north and south, at approximately 11 ft. from the north-east and south-east corners of the outer wall respectively, are remains of packed rubble foundations, on which may have stood plinths of a similar nature to that which has been discovered facing the main entrance. At present, owing to their mutilated condition, and until further examination has been made, any conclusion would be premature. The drastic manner in which the temple was destroyed ultimately is, it is pointed out, indicated by the fact that only in the south-east corner of the wall of the cella does any portion of the original construction remain.
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Romano-Celtic Temple at Colchester. Nature 136, 427–428 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136427d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136427d0