Data copyright © Henrietta Quinnell, Trevor Dymond unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Trevor
Dymond
15 Shutes Mead
Ottery St Mary
Devon
EX11 1EE
England
Tel: +44 (0)1404 813500
The examined assemblage consisted of a series of collections lodged at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter (RAMM), donated by the Tiverton Archaeology Group (TAG).
TAG was set up in the early 1980’s, to fieldwalk along the proposed course of the North Devon link road (NDLR), and surrounding fields, divided into:
Structured walks were planned for individual fields, occasionally two adjoining fields, and were documented with detailed fieldwalk notes by Barbara Keene, showing: date(s); area covered; walk tactics; people involved; and frequently plans of where pieces were found; these fieldwalks were mostly in the core area, and covered the largest surface area.
Some other fields, usually along the final course of the road, were walked randomly, and findspots were recorded by grid reference.
Two additional small lithic sets were examined, and are included in the overall analysis:
The assemblage was analysed by a community group of members of the Devon Archaeological Society, trained and led by Henrietta Quinnell, who examined all the pieces The assemblage was received from RAMM in cardboard boxes containing finds from one or more fields, in a number of bags. Where the number of found pieces required it, the bags contained finds either from one or more sub-areas: strips or squares; or by material type: flint or chert.
The purpose of the initial assessment was to:
Each bag's contents were categorised on paper Initial Assessment sheets, but for manageability, bags containing a large number of finds were split into groups, each with its own sheet. The data from these sheets were then transferred to individual Excel tables.
For each sheet, the finds were initially divided into: material type – flint, greensand chert, Portland chert or Other identified by material; and cortex type – nodular, pebble or non-cortical. Each grouping was counted and recorded in the Cortex Assessment section of the sheet. The finds were then divided into 32 categories, again by material type.
The data from the Initial Assessment sheets was consolidated into three Excel tables, containing all records of their type for further assessment and analysis:
The purpose of the detailed analysis was to:
The detailed tools analysis:
A full paper is available: br> Quinnell, H., Dymond, T., Keene, B., Newberry, J. 2015: ‘Lithic Scatters, Archaeology and Road Construction in the Tiverton Area’, Proc. Devon Archaeol. Soc. 73, 1–66.