The third season of excavation at the Roman bath house building at Truckle Hill has just been completed.  These past two weeks have revealed a lot of surprises about what we now know were a complex of buildings in this small valley bottom location close to Castle Combe.

Pieces of Painted Wall Plaster

The aim of this season was mainly to reveal more detail about the pre-bath house building which surprisingly came to light at the end of last season. This building had some intact painted wall plaster and a column base (see earlier blog from February 2009 for photo). More of this building was revealed this season, including part of a further  partial panel of intact painted wall plaster and what could be a monumental entrance feature leading into the building from the direction of the Roman Villa which is located 100m metres away. The jury is still out about the function of this earliest building as there is no evidence to suggest is was a bath house, but could possibly have been a building for feasting and dining. The biggest surprise this season was the discovery of yet another earlier building under the bath house, meaning there were at least three buildings constructed on site, one on top of the other. The second building was larger than the first. Structural evidence points to this being a bath house with a suite of rooms, some with painted wall plaster and tessellated pavements. A further discovery was a classic late Roman t-shaped corn dryer which had been inserted into the final bath house rooms after it went out of use. 'Read more' to find out about the dating of the buildings and the additional focus of the project….


Stone Roof Tiles from the Bath House

In terms of chronology we think that the first building was constructed about AD 85, with the second one probably up to about 70-80 years later. The third building was probably built around AD 250 and the corn drying oven inserted towards the end of the Roman period.

Part of the project this year also focused on further conservation of the Roman masonry and the backfilling of areas of the building that had been left open since its discovery in 2004. This work is crucial to helping to ensure the long term preservation of the site.

The success of this year’s excavation is down to the hard work of Phil and Darren from Wessex Archaeology and the team of dedicated volunteers, some of whom have now been there for all three seasons. Thanks again everyone.

Yet again the site has revealed lots of complexities and further questions still to be answered. We hope to be able to attain enough grant funding to return again next year.

More details about the site can be found on the Wessex Archaeology web site www.WessexArch.co.uk