Archaeologists uncover extraodinary 2,000-year-old Roman basilica beneath London office

euronews (in English)

The excavated remains in London consist of the Kentish limestone foundations of a massive two-story Roman basilica, where officials would have made key political and legal decisions.

Transcript

00:00So, we found the remains of the first Roman basilica. We actually knew that these remains

00:16were probably going to be located on this site, but what we didn't know was how well

00:20these remains were going to survive. It was likely that through time they had been disturbed

00:25by later construction activity. So, what we did was we undertook a series of test pits

00:30where we excavated small areas beneath the basement of the current building at 85 Gracechurch

00:35Street and these revealed some massive foundations, Roman foundations. Some of them are 10 metres

00:42long by 4 metres deep by 1 metre across. The significance of this site is that the

00:50Roman basilica really was the kind of commercial, social and economic hub of London. It's where

00:58you would go to do big business decisions and big business deals. It's where you would

01:02go to have disputes resolved by a magistrate. It's where you'd go to have discussions

01:07about the kind of decisions that could affect the changes that were happening to both Roman

01:11London and wider Roman Britain. So, what we found really is the heart of Roman London

01:16and that's why it's so special.

01:23So, the future plans for the site are that we're going to be working closely with the

01:27site owners and the architects to develop a new immersive visitor experience. So, when

01:33you walk into the building there's going to be an open market hall. There'll be food

01:36trucks and food stalls and things like that. And then you can go down into the basement

01:40where you can step out, probably onto some kind of glass floor, onto the ruins of the

01:45Roman basilica.

01:49By having these kind of tangible links to the past, we remember where we came from and

01:54we also have a sense of connection to those who came before. I think that's really important

01:58that when cities change a lot that we still remember the kind of origins of the city and

02:03the people that came before us and have those links. And I think that's what this new experience

02:08is going to offer.

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