New finds from Exeter’s Roman army past

Archaeologists investigating Exeter Cathedral’s historic Cloister Garden in England have unearthed significant Roman-period structures dating to the founding of the city. The Romanperiod finds include remnants of an early street, timber buildings, and a townhouse wall, later incorporated into the foundations of medieval cloisters. The new finds are contemporary with the nearby bathhouse discovered in 1971. John Allan, Cathedral Archaeologist, said: “The street and early timber buildings date from circa AD 50-75 and formed elements of the Roman legionary fortress which underlies central Exeter. They probably represent part of a long barrack building which extended towards the grant stone bathhouse exposed under the Cathedral Green in the early 1970s. The later stone wall is part of a previously unknown town house of the 3rd and 4th centuries.” The small Roman fortress was…