Old Sarum: Archaeologists reveal detailed plan of 11th century city
A detailed plan of an 11th century medieval city has been revealed for the first time by archaeologists using 21st century technology.
A team of academics from the University of Southampton used a range of state-of-the-art scanning techniques to uncover without digging a plan of the network of buildings at Old Sarum, near Salisbury, Wiltshire.
They concentrated their survey around the inner and outer baileys of what was once a fortification, with its origins in the Iron Age and the Roman conquest.
Their investigations revealed the layout of a settlement including structures from the late 11th century, contemporary with the construction of a cathedral and castle.
The city was inhabited for more than 300 years, but declined in the 13th century with the rise of New Sarum (Salisbury).
The findings, which concentrated on the medieval period, have shown a series of massive structures along the southern edge of the outer bailey defensive wall, perhaps suggesting large buildings of a defensive nature.
They have also revealed an open area of ground behind these large structures, perhaps for mustering resources or people, or as part of a circular route through the city, residential areas in the south east and south west quadrants of the outer bailey alongside the inner bailey ditch and evidence of deposits indicating industrial features, such as kilns or furnaces as well as signs of quarrying after the 1300s.
The team hopes to return to complete the survey of the inner and outer baileys and survey the Romano-British settlement to the south of Old Sarum in Easter 2015.
Old Sarum was originally an Iron Age fort established around 400 BC and occupied by the Romans after the conquest of Britain in AD 43.