© shoutcommunications.co.ukSkeletons were found buried in ditches at the site but may date from long before the Romans arrived.
A farming village established almost 2,000 years ago beside the Roman road leading westward out of London has been uncovered in the parkland around a stately home, now in deepest suburbia.
Extensive remains of the road and village, burials - including skeletons in ditches that are still puzzling archaeologists - and thousands of artefacts including pre-Roman jewellery were found at Syon House near the Thames in Isleworth. The mansion has been the London home of the Dukes of Northumberland for 400 years.
The finds were on the Brentford side of their land on a site being cleared for a new hotel. They were discovered only a few hundred yards from the spot where, according to passionately held local tradition, Julius Caesar crossed the Thames in 54 BC, defeating the British chieftain
Cassivellaunus and his alliance of local tribes.
The haul includes pottery, a lava stone quern, coins, a dagger, jewellery including shale bangles and a gold Bronze Age bracelet, in addition to the foundations of huts and a stretch of Roman road.
The strange ditch burials, like the jewellery, may date from long before the Romans arrived, and are still being studied at the Museum of London.
Comment: See also our forum discussion The Neanderthal Legacy for more information on this topic.