Office plans amended after Roman basilica found in City of London - BBC News https://share.google/jb3IsSuK2vxzPKmqz
What a thing to lose in the first place. I mean it's huge....
They state that they knew its location. I am reminded of Beddington villa, on which I dug as a teenager in the early eighties.
The Victorians had decided to build one of these new-fangled sewage farms at Beddington. Digging the foundations, they found Roman remains, and noted it as a probable villa. They then happily poured a lot of concrete over the site and carried on construction. The sewage farm was decommissioned in, IIRC, the fifties or sixties, but any thoughts of excavation had to be delayed for several reasons: cost and effort of hacking through the concrete; no immediate urgency to prioritise the site; and the need to let the sewage residues become less risky.
The site was finally opened when it was decided that gravel extraction there was a good idea. Nevertheless, very strict hygiene rules in place - definitely no eating or drinking whilst digging, lots of handwashing, biggest fear was Weil's Disease/leptospirosis.
Point being - our predecessors were often meticulous about recording finds. Just not prepared to change construction plans as a result.
leptospirosis!
dont lick the rats....
Quote from: DBS on Jul 14, 2025, 07:22 AMPoint being - our predecessors were often meticulous about recording finds. Just not prepared to change construction plans as a result.
To an extent you can see their point. The state is very happy to describe something as precious and dump the cost on the individual who happens to be the owner. Those who live in listed buildings, or are unfortunate enough to need to do work on a building in a national park, know exactly what it's like. I think there are grants available for Grade 1 and perhaps Grade 2* listed buildings, but for the rest, no help whatsoever, just a list of instructions that jack the cost up.
And to be fair, we were probably able to do a far better job a century later than if they had excavated straight away with Victorian tech and methodology.