The disturbed state of the rubbish may have been due to
its having been searched for building stones. This bed was capped
by fine vegetable mould, 9 inches in thickness. From these facts
we may conclude that the Hall was burnt down, and that much rubbish
fell on the floor, through and from which the worms slowly brought
up the mould, now forming the surface of the level field.
A section across the middle of another hall in the Basilica, 32
feet 6 inches in length, called the AErarium, is shown in Fig. 10.
It appears that we have here evidence of two fires, separated by an
interval of time, during which the 6 inches of "mortar and concrete
with broken tiles" was accumulated. Beneath one of the layers of
charred wood, a valuable relic, a bronze eagle, was found; and this
shows that the soldiers must have deserted the place in a panic.
Owing to the death of Mr. Joyce, I have not been able to ascertain
beneath which of the two layers the eagle was found. The bed of
rubble overlying the undisturbed gravel originally formed, as I
suppose, the floor, for it stands on a level with that of a
corridor, outside the walls of the Hall; but the corridor is not
shown in the section as here given. The vegetable mould was 16
inches thick in the thickest part; and the depth from the surface
of the field, clothed with herbage, to the undisturbed gravel, was
40 inches.
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