This week, the street team directed by Femke Martens and
assisted by Bart De Graeve (both KULeuven) finished work at the
North-South Colonnaded Street. The goal was to answer a number
of questions: what was the date for the layout of the pavement
of the street and its portico? What was the magnetic anomaly
traced on the street by last year's geophysical research?
Finally, how do our new insights relate to those of a 1998 test
sounding, which we carried out 5 m farther west on a presumed
side street? To meet our first aim, four slabs were lifted in
the center of the street and a trench of 2.25 by 0.70 m was
excavated over a depth of ca. 1.75 m. For the layout of the
Colonnaded Street there was a substratum 1.45 m thick and
consisting of a fill of at least 1.25 m (excavated depth),
completed on top by a level of medium-sized stones of ca. 0.20 m
thickness on which the slabs were set. At a depth of 1.75 m
below the paved surface, the bottom of this foundation level had
not yet been reached, but the trench became