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View of external wall and doorway, reconstruction based on evidence from 1 Poultry
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What does the evidence tell us?
The buildings began with a timber frame which was made elsewhere and
assembled on site, almost like putting a building together from a kit.
Archaeologists found few foundations, suggesting the base was laid directly
on the ground. The buildings had corner posts and vertical posts along the
sides about 60 cm apart, with diagonal braces between them for strength.
The roofs were thatched or made of wooden planks.
The walls were made of either mud bricks or wattle and daub. To make wattle
and daub the Roman builders fixed horizontal bars between the vertical wall
posts and wove flexible wooden rods in between, then covered the resulting
wall with a silty mud-clay. The walls were plastered, and while the plaster
doesn't survive, archaeologists find deep chevrons (v-shapes) made in the
daub which would have helped it to stick. Sometimes they weather-proofed
the outside walls with wooden planking instead.
Evidence for building and rebuilding suggests that houses like this would
have lasted between 20 and 30 years.
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