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I finally got to see the Roman wall in Chester and it made me think | Archaeology Discoveries - Free To Speak

I finally got to see the Roman wall in Chester and it made me think

I visited last month and they've uncovered a new section near the amphitheater, which shows how the city just built right over it for centuries. It's wild to see the old stones next to a modern parking lot, you know? Has anyone else seen an old site that's just part of a modern town like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

jakeb816mo ago

It's just a wall next to a parking lot. People have been building over old stuff forever.

mark_ward6mo ago

Was it the part by the river or up near the north gate? I love how you can just bump into history there. My town has a medieval lane that's now a cut through for delivery vans, and it always gives me that same weird feeling. It's like time just piles up in layers.

ryanc576mo ago

Yeah, that river path is exactly it. I read this article about how they found old cobbles under the asphalt there, like five different road surfaces stacked on top of each other. Your delivery van lane is the same thing, just history getting paved over for convenience. It's weird to walk on something that was built for carts and now handles Amazon trucks. Makes you feel like a tiny speck in the whole timeline.

cole_flores444mo ago

Man that's EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Seeing a wall from Roman times just sitting there next to a parking lot made me stop and stare for a solid five minutes. It's like the city didn't even care that they were hiding history under asphalt for ages. That river path ryanc57 mentioned, I walked it too and you can literally see where they patched old cobbles with modern concrete. It gives me this heavy feeling, like all the people who walked the same spot before me are still somehow there. Makes you realize how short our own time is in the grand scheme of things.