N7

(fig. 85)

(Fiona Macdonald, 1992)

Fig. 85: N7, plan and section.

The earliest construction phase is represented by the northeast wall of the insula, 3, and, running alongside it, a drain inside the building 10. This was over 50cm. deep (it was not bottomed), carefully built and plaster-lined. It was subsequently filled with clean red earth (9), which may imply that the building was abandoned temporarily, possibly in the period after 70 B.C., although there is no direct evidence for this. A new construction period entailed the building of two walls, 7 and 8, whose construction trench (11, fill 12) cut 9. The room was then floored with a smooth, compact beaten earth floor, 4cm. thick, 6, over which was found a layer of occupation debris, 5. 6 contained a number of sherds dating to the 1st c. A.D. (Amphorae Peacock form 12, African cooking wares), so that if the reconstruction is Augustan the floor is somewhat later. Over these a layer of tumble, 2, represents the collapse of the walls: it is dated by a fragment of ARS Hayes form 8A to the period after A.D. 80. Lying on top of it, two fragments of 'forum ware' suggest sporadic occupation of the area in the 9th or 10th c. It should be noted that there is no trace in this trench of street 7, although given the slight uncertainty attendant on laying out these trenches, this does not demonstrate that it did not exist.