Birmingham & Warwicks Arch Soc Trans (114)

Open-area excavations were undertaken in advance of development at a former industrial site at Eastside, Birmingham. Although the area was severely truncated and was overlain by 2m of overburden, organic clay deposits were found to have survived in some parts of the site. These provided rich palynological evidence for the landscape of the area from around 10,000 BP. Two flint tools were recovered, suggesting early prehistoric activity. A stratified charcoal horizon of burnt pine could provide evidence for a widespread burning event, perhaps an attempt by early communities to manage their landscape. Au/LD

Excavation of the burnt mound at Cob Lane, one of several discovered in Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s, revealed a pit, a burnt area and stakeholes under the mound and a former stream channel around it. Palaeoenvironmental evidence indicated grazing animals and also tree clearance which may have resulted in soil erosion and alluvial deposition. More burnt mounds were subsequently found through a systematic search of stream banks and in observations during ground disturbance. In addition to the Cob Lane excavation, stream-bank sections were cleaned and recorded at other sites, and contour and geophysical surveys were undertaken. Radiocarbon dates from charcoal clustered in the period 1700 to 800 cal BC. Consideration of other evidence from the region suggests that this period in south Birmingham follows forest clearance and its environmental impact and precedes land division marked by fixed boundaries.

A strip, map and sample excavation undertaken by Northamptonshire Archaeology at the former Peugeot Works, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire, revealed parts of at least three sub-rectangular enclosures and a nearby oval enclosure or ring ditch. All three enclosures contained small pit groups, and arcs of ditches within two of them suggested roundhouses. A small pottery assemblage which included scored ware dated the enclosures to the mid'“late Iron Age, while a burnished vessel from the ring ditch might suggest a period of usage in the 2nd'“1st centuries BC. The work at Ryton augments a steadily growing body of evidence for mid'“late Iron Age occupation in Warwickshire.

A small excavation in advance of redevelopment close to the River Rea in Digbeth revealed slight evidence of medieval activity; a few sherds of 12th to 14th century pottery were recovered. There was also debris from post-medieval industries which included ivory-working, probably to produce handles for iron knives which may themselves have been made on the site, and manufacture of shell buttons. Au/LD