NORTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND—According to Live Science, Historic England announced that efforts to improve the A1, a road that stretches from London to Edinburgh, have uncovered evidence of wealthy Roman settlements and sections of Dere Street, an ancient Roman roadway that followed the same route as the A1. At Scotch Corner, a well-known junction where the paths to eastern and western Scotland diverge, an excavation team from Northern Archaeological Associates discovered a settlement dating to A.D. 60. It had been thought that York and Carlisle, which date to A.D. 70, were the oldest Roman settlements in northern England. A figure of a toga-clad actor carved from amber, and more than 1,400 fragments of clay molds for making gold, silver, and copper coins, were unearthed at Scotch Corner. In addition to being the most northerly example of coin production in Europe, the molds suggest that the site was an industrial and administrative center for several decades, until it was eclipsed by the rise of Cataractonium, a leatherworking center, to the south. There, archaeologists recovered a silver snake-shaped ring, keys of various sizes, pens, a pewter ink pot, and a lead plumb bob—a tool used for building straight roads. For more on life in Roman England, go to “London’s Earliest Writing.”
