1116923. Cite this using datacite

Title:

New Science Park, Inlands Farm, Wanborough, Wiltshire

Series:

Foundations Archaeology unpublished report series

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Biblio Note

This report was uploaded to the OASIS system by the named Publisher. The report has been transferred into the ADS Library for public access and to facilitate future research.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.5284/1116923

Publication Type:

Report (in Series)

Abstract:

The evaluation was excavated in three phases, however the works comprise a total of one hundred and forty-seven 50m evaluation trenches, which were excavated across the evaluation area. Due to the complexity of the archaeological resource within the area of the known Roman settlement at the western side of the site; the County Archaeologist requested that only a sample of the archaeological features be excavated, with the remaining archaeology recorded in plan. Non-significant overburden was removed, under constant archaeological supervision, to the top of the archaeological deposits or the underlying natural deposits, whichever was encountered first. This was achieved through the use of a mechanical excavator, equipped with a toothless grading bucket. Spoil tips were visually scanned for finds. The results of the evaluation trenching demonstrated that the majority of the archaeology was present within the area of known Roman occupation in the western side of the site. Where artefactual evidence was recovered, this appeared to corroborate the proposed Roman date, with pottery dates spanning the late 1st century through to the 4th century AD, with most wares probably dating from the later 2nd century into the 4th century. In general, the geophysical survey plots correlated well with the evaluation results in the area of the Roman settlement, although a number of discrete features or internal features within identified enclosures were only identified by the evaluation trenching; while a number of the linear features identified by the geophysics in Trenches 1, 2, 4 and 8 were not present within the evaluation trenches. Although unlikely, it is possible that some of the more ephemeral linear features which were present for the survey may have been further truncated or removed by subsequent ploughing between the date of the geophysical survey and the evaluation. The geophysical survey did not appear to correlate well with the evaluation results outside of the Roman settlement area and there was no evidence within the evaluation trenches for any of the strong dipolar results identified by the geophysical survey. There was a sparsity of dating evidence within the excavated features outside the Roman settlement with the only securely dated archaeology consisting of two discrete features within Trench 129, which contained late Prehistoric pottery. Further evidence of Prehistoric activity within the site can be evinced by the recovery of a small fragment of early Prehistoric pottery from probable linear [909], along with a flint blade fragment recovered by hand-cleaning across nearby feature [903]. A residual sherd of late Prehistoric pottery, similar to that present in Trench 129, was recovered from fill (1106). A blade fragment of probable Mesolithic to Early Neolithic date and a cutting flake of probable Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age date recovered from the subsoil in Trench 1 and Trench 13 respectively. All of the recovered Prehistoric evidence appeared to be localised within the southwestern side of the site, within the vicinity of the known Roman farmstead, which may suggest that this area was more favourable for settlement during the earlier periods, although no later Bronze Age or Iron Age activity is currently evident.

Author:

T Michaels

Publisher:

Foundations Archaeology

Other Person/Org:

Wiltshire and Swindon HER (OASIS Reviewer)

Year of Publication:

2019

Locations:

County:	Wiltshire
Parish:	Wanborough
Country:	England
County:	Swindon
District:	Swindon

Grid Reference: 419979, 183099 (Easting, Northing)

Subjects / Periods:

PIT (Monument Type England)

DITCHED ENCLOSURE (Monument Type England)

STAKE HOLE (Monument Type England)

LATER PREHISTORIC SHERD (Tag)

UNCERTAIN GULLY (Tag)

LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Object England)

GULLY (Monument Type England)

UNCERTAIN PIT (Tag)

EVALUATION (Event)

LATER PREHISTORIC LINEAR FEATURE (Tag)

SHERD (Object England)

ROMAN LINEAR FEATURE (Tag)

LINEAR FEATURE (Monument Type England)

LATE NEOLITHIC LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Tag)

LATER PREHISTORIC STAKE HOLE (Tag)

ROMAN SHERD (Tag)

ROMAN DITCHED ENCLOSURE (Tag)

LATE NEOLITHIC (Historic England Periods)

ROMAN (Historic England Periods)

LATER PREHISTORIC (Historic England Periods)

UNCERTAIN (Historic England Periods)

Identifiers:

OASIS Id:	foundati1-513291
Report id:	1337

Source:

OASIS (OASIS)

Relations:

Created Date:

16 Jan 2024