The Poultry digHigh Street Londinium, AD100Thousands of Londoners died when their city was destroyed by Queen Boudica's followers in AD60. Thousands more will have fled to the country. Yet we now know from the Poultry dig that people soon returned, and that they began to rebuild the city on a much grander scale than before. Situated where the city's main street, the via decumana, crossed the Walbrook stream, the Poultry site had always been a vital centre of communications. Now it also became a major road junction, with routes leading south towards the Thames and north in the direction of the amphitheatre. New buildings sprang up, closely packed together to cater for a growing population. Interestingly, these new structures were on the same alignments, and within the same building plots, as those burnt down in AD60. This suggests that a form of Land Register was carefully maintained by the local government. Two of the five buildings excavated on the north side of the via decumana have been recreated in the High Street Londinium exhibition. Tree-ring dating tells us that one of them was constructed in, or shortly after, AD73. It may have been a bakery, because grain was found scattered in large quantities over the floors.
Find out what the dig told us about: Description of image(s) on this page: Top: The site as it may have been in AD100. Bottom: Recording the oak frame and waterproof clay lining of a 2000-gallon water tank.
Exhibition sponsored by
©Museum of London
|
We have learned from the Poultry dig that this was an area principally inhabited by shopkeepers and craftsmen - the first time that it has been possible to characterise a quarter of Londinium with any precision. The second recreated building, for example, was used by a carpenter, while to the south of the main street was a shop owned by a jeweller or furniture-maker. Not far away was a large oak-planked water tank with a capacity of about 2000 gallons. This probably belonged to a textile mill, where cloth was dyed and finished.