Archaeology Appreciation 101

Something very old got in the way of the very new "urban oasis" of apartments and penthouses that the Acorn Property Group was building in the city borough of Southwark.

The discovery of some Roman wall foundations, followed by human and animal bones and intact pottery, delayed construction for three months while specialists excavated the site.

Now, the 52-unit site on Lant Street is expected to be complete in June; 28 units have already been sold. And Acorn is negotiating with the Museum of London to keep some of the artifacts on display in Southwark.

"We look at the Roman findings as a bit of a selling point," said Jenny Lovedale, a spokeswoman for Acorn. "We think all this rich history adds value to the property."

Although such finds are valuable for British archaeologists, they also mean slowdowns for developers eager to finish projects on time and on budget.

"There can be a delay of one day to dig one hole or there can be a delay of six months or longer to dig out an entire complex," said Alison Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Institute of Field Archaeologists in Reading, England.

And London is far from the only place where such things happen. Similar delays occurred during the construction of several projects for the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the building of the Rome Auditorium in the late 1990s. More than a century ago, most urban sites were developed in Britain without any consideration of what might lie beneath them.

But legislation called Planning Policy Guide 16, passed in 1991, required developers to consider the possibility of finding archaeological remains when planning all new projects and to cover the cost of any excavations.

Taylor estimated that British developers pay more than l100 million, or about $175 million, a year to meet those obligations. "It's truly like any other environmental constraint," she said. "Developers are expected to deal with this problem.

"This means that, if it happens that a developer's property turns out to be one of extreme importance, then the archaeologist could request that the site be preserved.

"In reality this type of thing rarely happens, although on occasion something may have to be moved, such as a road or a pipe, or a building may have to be built on piles."

Taylor said developers who do not comply with Planning Policy Guide 16 can face prosecution, just as they would if they ignored any other planning regulation.

Most developers follow the rules, but that does not mean they like them.

"The developers of large sites often are annoyed the first time it happens, but then they eventually discover that they can get value out of archaeological finds," Taylor said. "They find there's interest from employees and shareholders, and some of them go on to do publications about the finds and to display the materials."

Archaeologists say the Acorn site is an important one that included 86 graves and a wide range of jewelry, imported glass and even Christian artifacts.

Also, at least three dogs were buried in a part of the site.

But perhaps the rarest find was a Roman knife with an ivory handle in the shape of a leopard.

"All in all, it is a rich assemblage," said Frank Meddens, director of Pre-Construct Archaeology, which carried out the excavation for Acorn. The human remains will be reburied at an East London cemetery, he said.

It is no wonder that developers often come up against archaeological challenges in Britain. More than 600,000 historic sites and monuments have been recorded across the country.

Digs in areas like Southwark, a site that was used to bury the dead outside the main Roman settlement, have produced all sorts of extraordinary finds.

* In 2000 the first grave of a female gladiator was unearthed in a Roman burial site in Southwark.

* In 2002 the oldest known plaque inscribed with the city's Roman name, Londinium, was found.

* In 2003 a remarkably preserved 2,000-year-old pewter pot filled with what appeared to have been face cream was discovered at the site of an ancient Roman temple.

Berkeley Homes unearthed the plaque, the face cream and other artifacts, while developing a 1.2-acre, or almost half a hectare, site at Tabard Square in Southwark for a 572-unit residential tower block and office complex.

But the archaeological dig, which initially was expected to last six to nine months, wound up taking more than 12 delaying the project's completion and costing Berkeley Homes about l1.6 million.

Now the project is scheduled to be completed early next year.

More than 80 percent of the apartments have already been sold.

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