Great Roman city and hundreds of artifacts discovered during a railway excavation

(CNN) – The remains of a vast Roman trading settlement were discovered by a team of archaeologists working along a future high-speed rail route in England.

Hundreds of Roman coins, jewelry, pottery and a pair of shackles were among the artifacts discovered at the site near a town in Northamptonshire, according to a High Speed ​​2 (HS2) press release on Tuesday. HS2 is a large-scale project aimed at creating high-speed rail connections between London and the main cities in the center and north of England.

The site, known as Blackgrounds, dates from around AD 50. C., although initially it housed a town of the Age of the Iron that dates from around 400 a. C., said HS2.

As an Iron Age road and more than 30 circular houses were found near the Roman remains, archaeologists believe that the Iron Age town became a rich Roman settlement.

The area is believed to have developed over time and became more prosperous, with the construction of new roads and stone buildings.

A massive Roman road about 10 meters wide cuts through the settlement, far exceeding the normal maximum of about four meters, said James West, site manager for MOLA Headland Infrastructure, who oversaw the excavation.

Experts believe that this road, described as “exceptional in its size”, indicates that the settlement was once a crowded area with carts entering and leaving with goods.

“Discovering a large and well-preserved Roman road, as well as so many high-quality finds, has been extraordinary and tells us a lot about the people who lived here,” West said in the press release.

“The site really has the potential to transform our understanding of the Roman landscape in the region and beyond.”

Workshops, furnaces and several wells unearthed suggest that the city would have been a “bustling and busy area” in its heyday, the press release says. In addition to industrial practices, the foundations of buildings used for domestic purposes were also discovered.

More than 300 Roman coins were found, suggesting that a significant volume of trade passed through the area.

Glass vessels, highly decorative ceramics, jewelry, and evidence of cosmetics, such as the mineral galena, which was crushed and mixed with oil to create makeup, were also discovered.

The quality of the soil, which is fiery red in some parts, suggests that activities involving burning took place in the area, such as bread-making, metalworking, or pottery.

A pair of uncovered shackles could also be evidence of slave labor or criminal activity, the press release says.

The artifacts will be cleaned and examined by specialists, while the layout of the area and the details of the buildings are mapped.

Blackgrounds is one of more than 100 archaeological sites between London and Birmingham that HS2 has surveyed since 2018.

HS2 has unearthed a number of interesting archaeological finds, such as rare Roman statues found in a church in Buckinghamshire and a Roman mosaic on a farm in Rutland in the East Midlands.