The Romans stayed in London for 400 years and Londinium, the town they created, was the largest town in Roman Britain (Britannia). The remains the Romans left behind lie as much as 8 metres below today’s streets due to the fact that the City of London (the Roman town) has been heavily built over for nearly 2000 years. Archaeological excavations help us find the missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that help us tell the story of Roman London, but like any puzzle, there may be pieces missing. This is why we have to use words like ‘probably’ as we sometimes can’t always be certain of the evidence.

Can you ‘handle’ Roman London?

When objects are found buried in the ground they have to be ‘conserved’ - cleaned and made safe to stop any further corrosion - as we want the objects to last another 2000 years. We are careful when we handle the objects so that we do not damage them and so we wear white cotton gloves. Our sweaty hands could make the corrosion worse. You'll see these gloves in the films even though some of the objects are replica. It makes the point that these objects tend to be fragile.

Understanding Roman London continues on the next page...