The nature of the ground at some
little distance on each side of the corridor is shown in the
section. It consisted of earth full of stones and other debris,
capped with dark vegetable mould which was thicker on the lower or
southern than on the northern side. The pavement was nearly level
along lines parallel to the side-walls, but had sunk in the middle
as much as 7.75 inches.
A small room at no great distance from that represented in Fig. 13,
had been enlarged by the Roman occupier on the southern side, by an
addition of 5 feet 4 inches in breadth. For this purpose the
southern wall of the house had been pulled down, but the
foundations of the old wall had been left buried at a little depth
beneath the pavement of the enlarged room. Mr. Joyce believes that
this buried wall must have been built before the reign of Claudius
II., who died 270 A.D. We see in the accompanying section, Fig.
15, that the tesselated pavement has subsided to a less degree over
the buried wall than elsewhere; so that a slight convexity or
protuberance here stretched in a straight line across the room.
This led to a hole being dug, and the buried wall was thus
discovered.
We see in these three sections, and in several others not given,
that the old pavements have sunk or sagged considerably.
Pages:
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183