More information : Excavations in 1972 at Lion Walk, TL 997251, revealed two Saxon grubenhauser of the two post type. One hut had been built against an outside wall of a derelict Roman building. It had a large number of replacement stakes and a hard trampled surface on its floor suggesting a long life with no timber floor. Over a hundred sherds of early Saxon pottery were found over the site as a whole suggesting the past existence of several more huts. In view of this and the sherds found previously in the town, Colchester may have been an important early Saxon settlement. A dearth of later Saxon material suggest a drift of occupation towards street frontages in the middle Saxon period. The earliest feature recognized so far as later than the Saxon huts is a ditch 2.5 metres deep, with a gravelled street to its south, running outside the town wall. The finds are in Colchester and Essex Museum. (1-2) The main area of Saxon finds appears to have been on the S side of Roman Colchester (TL 92 NE 2) outside St Botolph's Gate and in the Mersea Road district (area TL 999249). In addition to the sunken-floored huts found at Lion Walk, a number of shield bosses and bronzes, evidently from graves, have been found, especially in the 19th century, although no graves were identified. Other Saxon objects have been found at Colchester, mainly of 6th-7th century date, but some possibly dating from the 5th century. (3-5)
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