Leicestershire Archaeological & Historical Society Transactions 82

The results from three sites are reported: sites 10, 11 and 23, which had significant prehistoric remains. Site 10, near Ratcliffe on the Wreake, included two small pits with a significant assemblage of Neolithic pottery, a Bronze Age ditch and a group of intercutting pits and gullies which produced both Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon pottery. Among many undated features, an array of postholes is possibly the remnant of a small post-built structure. At site 11, on the ridge of high ground to the north of Ratcliffe village, the pipeline route intersected part of a system of ditch-defined Bronze Age and Iron Age enclosures. A roundhouse ring gully at site 12, east of Cossington, may date from the Bronze Age.

Following the discovery during mechanical excavation of a Late Roman coin hoard and human remains, an English-heritage funded excavation and metal detecting survey was carried out. This resulted in the identification of five graves (including one that was completely destroyed during the discovery of the site). The remains of at least eleven inhumation burials were recovered, along with evidence that at least three of the graves had been re-used. Three bracelets, one of shale and two of copper alloy, and two pottery accessory vessels were recovered from two of the graves, which dated the burials to the third century onward. A further twenty-six coins were also found, increasing the total number of coins and coin fragments from the hoard to 1,418. The hoard had been deposited in one of the graves, either at the time of burial or perhaps as a later insertion. The latest coins in the hoard, Theodosian issues dating to AD395-402, suggest that the hoard was probably deposited in the first decades of the fifth century. The hoard is potentially the largest and latest hoard ever recorded from a grave in Britain. It is currently unique.

Overview of excavated sites with brief descriptions. Also includes a list of watching briefs which produced no significant archaeological features. PP-B