// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Roman settlement dating back 2,000 years found under new-build estate
One of the brooches recovered from the site retains its decorative green enamel though the copper-ore metal work has corroded over time
A "very significant" Roman settlement, including a jewellery workshop dating back nearly 2,000 years, has been found under a new-build housing estate.
Heneb - the trust for Welsh archaeology - made the "unexpected" discovery in Mancot, Flintshire, amid mining surveys being carried out for the development and called it "one of the biggest" Roman artefact collections in the county.
A number of brooches and moulds have undergone conservation and will be further analysed at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff before going on display in north-east Wales.
Project manager Chris Matthews, said the find was "very exciting" and it changed what was understood about the history of the area.
Chris Matthews says it is "great time" to be an archaeologist in north-east Wales
Homes have now been built over the excavation site on Gladstone Way, but not before dozens of items including pottery, coins and the jewellery were removed.
The area was also mapped and showed the settlement extended underneath the village of Mancot, which sits between Hawarden and Queensferry.
Matthews said, in spite of its position overlooking the important Roman city of Chester, very little associated archaeology had been found in north-east Wales until recently.
He said it meant that archaeologists and historians in the area had long debated whether it reflected a "poor relationship" between the Romans and the native population of the time.