NHER 68285 (Monument record) - Iron Age to Roman pits and ditches and other potentially prehistoric and undated remains

July-August 2023. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of site on proposed route of new water main (Trenches 21-26).
The six trenches excavated at this location all revealed archaeologically-significant remains, many of which appear to have been associated with later Iron Age to Roman phases of activity.
The limited evidence for earlier activity includes a single sherd of possible Early Iron Age pottery and a small assemblage of mostly undiagnostic worked flints. The majority of the flints were likely to be residual within later features, with the possible exception of a group of flake cores and flakes recovered from an otherwise undated pit at the northern end of the site (and recorded as being in somewhat better condition that the rest of the assemblage). This was one of a number of pits in the northern part of the site with charcoal-flecked or charcoal-rich fills that produced little in the way of dating evidence. Another of the more notable examples contained more than 100 burnt flints and a single fragment of undiagnostic slag. Samples taken from this and a number of the other potentially prehistoric pits in this part of the site all produced varying quantities of charcoal but little else in the way of charred plant macrofossils or other debris.
Features of possible or probable Iron Age date were encountered in a number of the trenches, with the majority lying in the southern half of the site. The potentially Iron Age remains in this part of the site included a unexcavated curvilinear ditch, a number of other narrow linear features and various other pits and ditches.
The evidence for Roman-period activity was concentrated at the southern end of the site, with the bulk of the Roman pottery recovered from a dense group of pits and ditches exposed within a single trench. The Roman pottery includes a least two sherds from vessels of mid- to late 1st-century date and it is notable that many of the potentially Roman features also contained handmade pottery of probable Iron Age date – suggesting occupation in the immediate post-Conquest period and potentially at least a degree of a continuity between the two phases of activity. The remainder of the Roman pottery is fairly undiagnostic, although it appears to be a predominantly early assemblage, with nothing that would necessarily date to after the mid 2nd century. Other finds from the features of probably Roman date included fragments of animal bone, an oyster shell and a small assemblage of ceramic building material comprising several probable flue tile fragments and possible imbrex and wall/floor brick fragments. Another notable find from these features was the central part of a square-sectioned clay bar that could potentially represent a piece of Roman kiln furniture. Significantly, this was found close to two features that contained much burnt material (both left unexcavated), one of which is tentatively interpreted as a possible kiln.
There was little evidence for post-Roman activity at this location, although it should be noted that a comparatively large assemblage of handmade pottery recovered from one of the ditches in the northern half of the site includes a group of sherds in an organic-tempered fabric. Although these sherds are tentatively identified as Early Bronze Age date it is noted that this type of fabric is often a feature of Early Saxon pottery. The possibly that these sherds are in fact Early Saxon must therefore be considered, particularly given the known presence of an Early Saxon cemetery in the immediate vicinity (represented by a group of burials excavated in the vicinity of a Bronze Age barrow in 1990 (NHER 25458) and numerous objects of Early Saxon date recovered during metal-detecting in the general vicinity).
An iron hook of likely medieval date was the only other potentially post-Roman find recovered from the excavated features.
Unstratified finds were limited to Roman pottery sherds and a medieval/post-medieval brick or tile fragment.
See reports (S1) and (S2) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 22 April 2024.