More information : A number of small trenches were excavated immediately south of St
Gabriel's Chapel (TR 15155789 sited from plan authority 1) by CAT
between 1978-80. The earliest features which covered almost the
whole area excavated consisted of intercutting pits, probably clay
quarries dating to the 1st and 2nd centuries. During the late 2nd/
early 3rd century a minor Roman street or cobbled track, running
approximately immediately NE-SW, was laid across the site. By the
early to mid 3rd century the track had gone out of use and a Roman
building, possibly a temple, was constructed over its west side.
This structure had at least 3 rooms, all with tessellated floors,
one of which contained a mosaic panel. To the east of the structure,
remnants of a courtyard were excavated. Finds included a bronze
Silvus head and a hand-moulded figurine. Cutting across the Roman
mosaic was a massive east-west wall foundation, which proved to be
earlier than the foundations of the present Cathedral Choir of 1096,
and therefore may relate to Lanfranc's early Norman Cathedral or the
Anglo-Saxon Cathedral.
A charnel pit containing redeposited human bones was found cut by
the still extant late 11th century foundations, This pit almost
certainly contains Saxon burials disturbed and reinterred during the
c1096 building work. From the 12th to the 15th centuries the whole
area was used as the Cathedral Cemetery, monks being buried to the
east of St Gabriel's Chapel and lay persons to the west. These two
graveyards were separated by a wall running south from the chapel
(demolished c1850) the foundations of which were also discovered
along with eighteen burials belonging to the cemetery itself. These
were overlain by a brick drain of c1500 which is still in use. (1-7)
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