Excavations in preparation for Bloomberg’s new European Headquarters from 2010-2014 were an unprecedented opportunity to explore three hectares of waterlogged ground where the now-lost Walbrook River once flowed through the heart of Roman London.
We recovered over 14,000 objects from the site, many startlingly well preserved. Some discoveries were immediately visible to the naked eye – like writing tablets and leather sandals - but others only crawled out of the woodwork later, once environmental samples were placed under the microscope.
One such discovery is thought to be the earliest evidence of cockroaches known in the British Isles. A number of cockroach egg cases known as oothecae were recovered from the tile wall of a circular structure and extracted from samples by one of our Senior Environmental Archaeologists. Dating to AD 65 – 80, the structure has been interpreted as a communal bread oven, and research is revealing why cockroaches decided to make it their home nearly 2000 years ago.
