The Poultry digThe founding of LondiniumLondinium occupied a prime site at the hub of the road system of southern Britain. The Thames was tidal up to this point - so that sea-going ships could easily sail up-river and berth - yet was shallow enough to be bridged. This is why Londinium was founded here, but the Poultry dig produced vital new evidence about when and how the city came into being. Running across the site was a long stretch of the town’s main east-west street - the street known to the Romans as the via decumana. Beneath the earliest surface of that street was a timber drain. Tree-ring dating tells us that the planks used in the drain came from trees felled in AD47. Imagine then the Roman surveyors, standing on the west bank of the Walbrook, just four years after the army had invaded Britain, laying out the new town plan and preparing the basic services. During the 50s the town grew rapidly. Timber-framed houses and shops appeared along the street frontage. One such shop, on the north side of the street, has been recreated in the High Street Londinium exhibition. It sold household goods and supplies, including pottery from southern and central France. A cache of charred spices was discovered in one of its rooms. These included mustard, dill, fennel, coriander and black cumin - all ingredients used in Roman cooking. Small wooden spoons found nearby may have been used to measure out the spices.
Find out what the dig told us about: Description of the image(s) on this page Top: The site as it may have been in AD60. Bottom: Pendants from cavalry harness reveal the presence of soldiers in Londinium at this time.
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©Museum of London
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This first period of prosperity came to a sudden and violent end. In AD60, some of the British tribes, led by Boudica, Queen of the Iceni, rebelled against the Roman government and burnt London to the ground. At Poultry, archaeologists found extraordinarily clear evidence for this event. Across the whole site were thick layers of burnt debris and, underneath them, the incinerated stumps of posts that had once formed the walls of houses or shops.