Page:Roman Manchester (1900) by Charles Roeder.djvu/49

 In the ancient river silt along these arches the excavators handed up to me a number of complete urns and Samian pateras and patellas, and another fine large bowl embossed with ornamental work and a circular inscription, which unluckily was stolen by some boys from the cabin and smashed.

Almost in the centre, between Gilbert Street and Mount Street, I laid open and excavated an old botontinus (see plan), which measured 7 feet across; its upper part was covered with a thick layer of charcoal, and the rest to the bottom was filled with a grey, sandy, soft loam, containing Samian ware, burnt bones, glass, lead, amphoræ, black-and-white ware, iron nails. It was dug into the river gravel, which forms the original subsoil at Gaythorn. Its depth was about 3 feet to 4 feet. Another Roman botontinus appeared at the corner of Great Bridgewater Street in August, 1897, facing No. 330, Deansgate, which I have photographed (see plan). It spreads in basin-shape; its greatest depth (of the first layer) is 20 inches, and consists of Roman soil, pottery, iron nails, bricks, calcined bones, blackish-brown sandy loam, and at the bottom contained the upper part of a big amphora. Below this we have a 4-inch layer of charcoal, then clay, and at the base the pre-Roman yellow soil, followed by the usual river gravel. Later on the vicinal road, already described, was laid over it.

These botontini, which demarcated the boundary of some territorial property, refer, of course, to an earlier time, when the life was more contracted; later on, when the place was more opened out and attracted settlers and traders, it outran its original bounds with an increasing population.

But we have not quite done. So far we have shown a Roman occupation of land on the northern side of the Medlock, but it did not terminate here. We discover