Current Archaeol 10

An experienced volunteer digger argues that professional archaeologists 'cannot treat volunteers as helots, unpaid navvies or idiots and expect to keep them'. The unskilled use of anthropological/ethnological observations to 'explain' simple economic phenomena is also regrettable.

Late Roman or MEM pits and ditches underlie the church (? secular settlement) and were followed by a small inhumation cemetery of at least twenty graves with one very large stone-edged grave. A small two-cell stone church was built and later remodelled with curved apses at east and west and no chancel arch (12th/early 13th century?); materials are Roman. Some graves were inside this church, many more outside, some coffined, some with pillow-stones. Abandonment in early 15th century: this church gives the clearest picture we have of an early med parochial Welsh church. A reconstruction of the plan has been made in stone nearby.

The early fort (Frontinus's work rather than Agricola's?) had a timber granary later buttressed in stone. A deep midden pit contained an important collection of military leather. Late Flavian redefences and the impressive bath house and vicus were explored. The late Roman fort on a different alignment (seen by Stukeley) remains obscure, but there is religious sculpture and industrial activity including the mass production of spoons.

Work in the Abbey Foregate area has revealed elaborate ?kitchens and has suggested that the standing building known as the 'infirmary' was a rather fine guesthouse. A silver bowl has a hallmark a century earlier than any previously known. A mill of c 1800 was also examuned.

The LBA platform settlement is notable for its surviving timber uprights of an aisled house, its boardwalk edge, floor surfaces, jet bracelet, and coppiced tree-stool. Digging proceeds under a steel-framed 'tent' which allows high-level photography from a monorail; water level is correctly maintained by an artificial lagoon (the digging of which revealed 6-7 more buildings). See also Fenland Res, 5, 1987-8, 15-17 on this site by same au.

An Iron Age phase has been revealed, with a 9m diameter grain pit, round houses, cooking site, and well. The grain store suggests centralized control. A keeill or Early Christian chapel with socially-ranked burials lies over the Iron Age site; pagan Norse graves use the same alignment and construction, and there is a Norse-period rampart (Magnus Barelegs, 1098?). Medieval and later phases are represented by the castle of the Earls of Derby, a series of domestic buildings and modifications to the defences up to the Civil War. Particular attention is paid to the educational and entertainment needs of visitors to this key site.

Brief notes on dates for Neanderthal Man, the Oxford AMS date output, and a Saxon post from Fyfield Hall (Essex).

A squarish arrangement of timber uprights, 8m across with corner gaps and graded timbers, enclosed a clay bank and rubble ring with central pit containing only two vertical timbers. An early 2nd millennium date is assigned. Rubble filling included two cupmarked stones and cremations. Plough scratchmarks lay below the timber structure and a concentration of fern spores was noted. A Milfield Basin site is comparable.

Two additional Roman forts have been discovered. A late 1st century barrack with horse-trappings overlies double ditches of a very large fort; earlier still are a turf rampart and some ephemeral timber structures. There may be a 3rd-4th century agricultural settlement, and for the medieval period three drying or malting kilns were found. The Roman fort's N rampart stood, and acted as a boundary, well into postmed times.

Three important changes were introduced between 1550 and 1750: first, immigrant French workers brought new designs of furnace, producing a superior glass; then in early 17th century coal-fired operation began (eg Kimmeridge with its below-ground air intake) and bottles became an important product; and the third innovation was the introduction in 1690s of the tall conical structures to contain the working space and provide chimneys. New evidence from Bolsterstone is also mentioned (see 89/800.)

Unsupervised restoration work in 1970s necessitated fresh excavations, which revealed a 13m diameter Iron Age round structure yielding over 92% of the coins from the site (now totalling 827, mostly of Cunobelin, and including some Ag and Au). Votives included brooches, ironwork, animal bones, a late Iron Age chape, a Minerva head in stone, and other RB finds belonging to the Romano-Celtic temple which was finally dismantled and robbed in mid-4th century. Excavator: Richard Bartlett.

Short descriptions of several sites in the Dorchester area; see also 89/300.

Notes the discovery of combined barracks and stables, and of barracks converted into stables, suggesting the quartering together of cavalry and infantry for the winter rather than a normal legionary fortress. Also some prehistoric (Neo) material in a circular structure.

Occupation of the rath runs from c AD 600 to 1000 in a mound which built up as wicker-walled houses were repeatedly rebuilt (forty houses in all). The settlement of c 750 had five buildings, one single and two linked pairs. Hearths, troughs, and wattle beds survive, also a complete door frame with pivot and joints, of wood felled AD 648. The tightly woven double wattle walls required circa five miles of rods per house. Two souterrains were cut into the mound top. Insect assemblages compare with those at York. Other finds include flax, woad, wooden vessels, a shoe last, horizontal mill parts. Midden effects meant that a single kind of house could leave six different types of trace.

Shows some votive finds made by divers exploring Raymond Selkirk's theories on the Dere Street bridge.

In sixteen years the Museum of London has established developers' funding on an unprecendented and unparalleled scale, and launched the Code of Practice for such collaboration. Over 850 publications have been produced and new recording techniques pioneered, while knowledge of the archaeology of the City of London has been revolutionized.

The Pennine fortlet was badly excavated 80 years ago but has now been re-studied and conserved for presentation to the public, with 90% of the interior layout revealed. It has features suggesting a supply base and staging post (see also 89/1479).

Brief account of work on 9th century cemetery, medieval farmstead, and stone drain with stylus and fragment of ?book cover suggesting monastic origins.

Summarizes fieldwork and excavation since the 1930s around Holme-on-Spalding Moor including discovery of the Iron Age Hasholme boat; a med timber bridge at Stray Farm; numerous IA and RB settlements and iron-working sites, RB pottery and glass manufacturing, and med pottery kilns. F B

Includes information on optical dating of sediments, archaeometallurgy, a piece of Romanesque zinc from Ludlow, techniques for lifting archaeological structures, and diet and craft in towns. F B

Of over 1000 tablets (15% illegible wax stylus tablets, the rest ink-leaf tablets on thin wood) 200 had substantial readable texts which give much information (and sidelights) on army life. They were among a great variety of wooden and leather objects and textiles excavated from at least five successive wooden forts of AD 80s to mid-2nd century. F B/Ed

The site may have been occupied from the 80s; the first stone fort of c 163 was converted and enlarged in early 3rd century into a supply base with granaries serving the Wall and other forts of the NE. The HQ building has unusual features. The buildings which superseded this supply base were probably used by a unit of Tigris bargemen. The SW gate has been reconstructed and laid out for visitors. F B/Ed

Charles Daniels's excavations (the most extensive for any Wall fort) showed that the earliest Hadrianic layout, with barracks, administrative buildings, granaries, a ?hospital and gravelled ?parade ground, was extensively altered in the 4th century when the barracks were replaced by ranges of family chalets. F B

Converging evidence from Irish bog oaks, US bristlecone pine, and Greenland ice cores is reinforcing theories that certain volcanic eruptions have given rise to climatic worsening caused by atmospheric dust veils. Though there are still problems with the dating of Thera/Santorini at 1628 BC, a spectacular climatic event at 1159 BC lines up with tephra layers in Scotland and Burgess's dating for the sudden end of the earlier BA. Another event in AD 540 suggests the Justinian famine and plague. Some of these events also agree with Chinese historical records (eg for Shang Dynasty). (See also Burgess in 90/380.)

Recent excavations have explored the central range and south wing with cellar and bath suite. Red plaster and bright blue roof tiles must have conveyed a gaudy effect. The site began in late Iron Age with high status occupation in round houses, followed by Claudian military bronzes and copper smelting. A simple stone villa of c AD 125 was successively enlarged and rebuilt until a final phase of high-quality work was interrupted at end 3rd century. Shanty-style occupation c 330 with copious food remains followed. Roof finials are among more notable finds.

Since it was first hypothesized in 1979 the 'catastrophe' of 12th-llth centuries BC which resulted in contraction of settlement and agriculture has received further supporting evidence, not least from dendrochronology and volcanic studies. However, recovery of population levels is evident in 8th-7th centuries, even in the uplands. France, Spain, and Italy also had 12th century crises. Other 'crisis' dates in the tree-ring record can be seen reflected in the archaeological evidence: 4370s BC arrival of farm stock and crops; 3190 BC marks the transition from causewayed enclosures and long graves to henges and passage tombs. The 1620's BC event is unreflected in Britain, perhaps because an expanding economy can survive disaster, but the event of 207 BC agrees with the building of defences in NE England. Complete collapse probably only strikes a society which is already under severe stress (see also 90/142, 377).

The massive timber planks of the mortuary structure (4000-3500 BC cal) within the long barrow were well preserved and mainly intact, with a post-built façade and hornwork. The structure had been dismantled and carefully burnt before the construction of the mound which may have been contemporary or later. The chamber contained at least five individuals; graves of an adult and a child were dug into the mound (see also 90/1229). F B

Excavations of the AS cemetery revealed twenty-one pagan inhumations and seventeen cremation burials from the second half of the 6th to the early 7th century, including two surrounded by ring ditches, and one inhumation in a logboat 3m long, with an iron knife, belt fittings, and a pair of ?drinking horns over the feet. The variety of forms of burial and of containers, particularly the simple boat and high-status horns, may indicate more variations in religious belief than hitherto recognized. F B

Brief notes on: bone chemistry, cholesterol in soil, and field tests for blood deposits; the Oxford Late Glacial conference, leprosy and leprosaria, the St Helier torc, and ground-probing radar; and bone diagenesis, difficulties in interpreting charred foods, AMS dating of Paviland Man and the Piltdown mandible, luminescence dating, the Bradford 1989 conference, and Roman wall-plaster.

Recent work has largely reversed Wheeler's sequence: the enclosure started very large and then received a massive earthwork cutting off about one-fifth of the interior. The Tofts has a much longer sequence than Wheeler thought, but its defences are incomplete. Excavation of an oval enclosure within The Tofts has revealed a complex sequence of presumably residential occupation with a final phase in stone. Five Iron Age burials were found, one accompanied by a horse's head, another by a baby. A mixed economy was demonstrated and diplomatic quality Roman goods were coming in between AD 43 and 70. It looks like the seat of an important pre-Roman ruler, most likely Cartimandua.

An area of the Roman fort close to the NW corner was excavated to reveal two phases of defences and two of a gate tower, together with a large well over 4m deep, and a 10m x 8 timberlined pit (cool store or cellar).

Summarizes recent work by Verulamium Museum and Cardiff University staff. The Boudican-period town was very much smaller than thought. A large building in Insula XIII contained several different small industries. In King Harry Lane was a rich burial with iron tripod, large dinner service in samian, glass vessels, gaming pieces, and strigils: date c 80/90 AD. In St Stephen's graveyard a fine Roman lead coffin with chalk-packed skeleton was lifted for laboratory excavation. The Wheeler archive is still yielding interesting data. A few miles away at Old Parkbury was a logboat burial, undated as yet.

A large cist containing two cremations and an inhumation, with a pot, was constructed with a removable side slab held by a locking-stone. A grass-stem basket was inside the pot, which held an adult cremation. An 8-month old foetal skeleton was in a jumble of bone in a corner of the cist. Dating will depend on 14C, as there are both Neo and BA elements. Director was Magnar Dalland. (Some more details available in Historic Scotland's Archaeological Operations and Conservation Annual Report 1989, pp 4-6.)