We explore a Roman site deep in the Essex countryside

 Our host today was interested in archaeology from the age of 4. His father had been walking in one of their fields, when he picked up a Roman tile with a dog paw print on it. On investigation, and several years and unexpected pot and sink holes later, father and son discovered there had been an extensive Roman settlement on the site.

What they discovered indicated the sophistication of life nearly two thousand years ago. Our group were good at identifying the artefacts on display and answering the questions posed to them in the museum. In the picture, above, the young archaeologists are standing on the site of a large Roman kitchen, identified because of the amount of pot sherds and pans discovered. One of them, a whole pot at a lower level, had been used under the floor in the northern corner of the kitchen to keep foodstuffs cool. A Roman "Travelodge" someone remarked. Evidence showed the local community made almost everything they needed from raw materials which were  to hand, wool for clothes, wood for building and vehicles, clay for bricks and pots. Hair pins were made locally too. How did they know? because partially finished ones were discovered. The geology museum at the farm included a huge piece of flint, which perhaps hadn't been worked, because metal tools and weapons had superseded stone weapon and tool technology. The nearby woodland was as ancient as the site and had been sourced for building materials, including for vehicles, which were chariots in Roman times.

Pictured below is a paw print in a tile found on the Essex County Hospital site, similar to the one found 70 years ago, which started decades of excavations.