Ancient Shafts at Ipswich

Abstract

MESSRS. BCXLTON'S brickfield at Ipswich, already well known to archaeologists as a valuable source of evidence bearing on the cultures of the Old Stone Age, recently has been the site of another remarkable discovery, unique in the annals of British archaeology, but not yet explained with certainty. Three shafts of a remarkable character and of a previously unknown type have been exposed, of which two have been partially cleared by Mr. J. Reid Moir. Of these, the first, according to a report in The Times of January 29, was cylindrical in shape, and approximately three feet ten inches in external diameter, with walls of puddled clay nine inches thick. It was followed through the London clay into the Eocene sands; but neither here nor in the second shaft did excavation reach the bottom. Work in the second shaft had to be abandoned at a depth of seventy feet owing to the presence of water. This shaft was larger than the first, being some six feet in diameter, and more complex in its filling, at least down to a depth of eighteen feet. It had as a central core a pillar of puddled clay, with two walls of white clay between it and the outer wall. In both shafts at a considerable depth the clay walls coalesced to form a species of basin or false bottom, sealing the lower part of each shaft. Finds of archaeological significance were scanty. Fragments of Roman brick, two pieces of silver sheeting, such as might have formed part of the cover of a casket, and a fragment of polished marble, which might have been part of the casket itself, when taken in conjunction with the proximity of a Roman burial ground and the later Roman Castle Hill villa, have afforded a basis for the suggestion that these may be Roman burial shafts, such as the Puits funeraires of France, or the late Roman shafts leading to burial chambers of Cyprus.