Two ancient wells discovered in England suggest that even the Romans used the trial and error principle

The Romans were exceptional in many ways, achieving incredible feats of engineering and building structures that still stand today. But even the Romans made mistakes – and they had to deal with trial and error. The recent discovery of two ancient wells in England is proof of that, the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) announced in a statement on Monday.

According to the museum, the first fountain appears to have collapsed during construction, while the second was built to correct the mistake.

“We all did a bit of DIY work that didn't quite go to plan,” MOLA project manager Simon Markus admits in the statement, “but this was a failure of Roman engineering on an industrial scale. It would have taken a lot of effort to dig this well, which they then had to abandon completely.”

In the words of the London Just“Jack Blackburn: “They came. They saw. They made mistakes.”

Archaeologists found the structures, along with “astonishingly well-preserved wooden elements,” during excavations at a settlement in Cambridgeshire, England, founded around 350 BC, the statement said. They dated the wells to the Roman period (43 to 410 AD), by which time the settlement must have been “a hive of industrial activity.” The excavations also revealed a large fenced-in area containing evidence of carpentry, woodworking and metalworking from roughly the same time period.

The team uncovered the first well outside the fenced area. It was about 8.5 metres deep, and the remains of a 2,000-year-old ladder found inside – which remained intact despite the flood – suggest that the well collapsed before the Romans could use it. It appears that the clay used to line the well's walls did not adhere to the compacted earth and stones in the area.

“It would definitely be very frustrating to lose so much work. The fact that the ladder was in the well suggests that they were still working on the well at the time of the collapse,” Markus told the observer's Dalya Alberge. “They were about 8.5 meters deep, so they were almost finished with the excavation.”

Before starting work on the second well, the Roman builders apparently thought about what had gone wrong and then changed their strategy. When the locals tried again, they dug inside the fenced enclosure. The second well was only about 6.4 meters deep and instead of clay, it was lined with wooden boards that supported the structure. Archaeologists found a layer of stones at the bottom of the well that served to filter the water.

The well also contained wooden remains – including some simple decorative carvings – that were probably thrown there after the well was taken out of use. These wooden elements suggest that industrial woodworking was taking place here, rather than just small DIY projects. This would be consistent with another discovery made at the same site: a likely Roman road that may have connected local woodworkers to a larger trade system.

The excavations, which have now been completed, were carried out ahead of a development plan to improve England's A428 motorway. Gareth Moore, programme manager for the road project, told BBC News' Helen Burchell that the archaeological research had been a “fascinating and integral part” of the process.

“Without this major road-building project,” he adds, “these invaluable discoveries about Roman engineering and daily life might have remained hidden forever.”

Now experts want to further examine the wooden contents of the wells to find out what the carpenters of the settlement built.