Somerset Archaeol Natur Hist 149

Excavations at RNAS Yeovilton confirmed the presence of Iron Age and Romano-British settlement and agricultural activity. The site is located to the southeast of land at Podimore, which had previously been identified by aerial photography as a probable settlement. The site, probably one of many along the Yeo valley, appears to have been a small rural farmstead. The ceramic evidence suggests occupation from the Middle to Late Iron Age through to the late Roman period, although the structural evidence for the later periods is strongest. The excavations also demonstrated Middle to Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age activity on the site. Includes separately authored contributions on

The paper examines the evidence for the armorial hangings given to Wells Cathedral by the scholar Polydore Vergil in the early-sixteenth century, making particular use of material collected by the seventeenth-century antiquary William Burton. The hangings disappeared at some time during the mid-seventeenth century. Includes

A limited programme of archaeological investigation was carried out within the Roman lead-mining settlement at Charterhouse-on-Mendip in 2005, as part of Time Team's Big Roman dig television broadcast. The programme comprised geophysical survey and the excavation of two small trenches within the scheduled monument. The geophysics revealed a network of enclosures and roadways on differing alignments, probably representing many different phases of settlement development, in addition to evidence for possible ore extraction `rakes'. It became clear during excavation that contaminant levels below the topsoil were significantly higher than anticipated, so none of the features encountered could be fully excavated; however the remains of at least a single masonry structure were revealed in one trench, while pottery recovered from the other trench, which lay over a pronounced rectangular earthwork enclosure, revealed this feature to be of Roman date. The level of heavy metal contaminants and a small quantity of slag from both trenches confirmed that lead processing had almost certainly occurred in the immediate vicinity, and the limited ceramic evidence suggests that most activity ranged from the later-first to third century AD in date. Includes separately authored contributions on

Report on Phases 5 and 6 of the project, which aimed to confirm or extend the date ranges achieved for the medieval roof types sampled in the previous phases, to include at least one roof-type not previously dated in Somerset and to add to the very small number of moulded ceiling beams and other features which have been dated.

Report on archaeological excavations in advance of development at the Old Showground, Cheddar, a site lying just outside the bounds of the probable precinct containing the late Saxon and medieval royal palace and minster church. The excavations provided new evidence for the development of late Saxon and medieval Cheddar. It was demonstrated that intensive occupation during the Roman period did not extend this far north, although there is evidence likely to be associated with agricultural activity, and Roman pottery indicating occupation from the first or second century onwards. A holloway, probably of late Saxon origin, was found to traverse the site, dating evidence from its infilling suggesting that it fell out of use sometime after the start of the tenth century but before the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. A smithing hearth bottom was recovered from the infill, testifying to ironworking activities. The possible route of the holloway beyond the area of the excavation is discussed. A structure to the south of the holloway was dated to the tenth or eleventh century; postholes indicate a timber-framed building. Following the abandonment of the holloway a series of ditches and gullies were laid out, suggesting the division of the area into plots during the twelfth or thirteenth century, and two more structures were identified from this phase, although indications are that occupation was short-lived. Includes separately authored contributions on

Article discussing the date of introduction, pattern of spread and habits of the brown rat, including the threat posed to stored grain and measures taken to counteract the threat.

Note on excavations undertaken at Downs Farm, Walton in 2005 in advance of development. Postholes and shallow baseplate trenches from a rectangular building were associated with `Saxo-Norman' tenth- to eleventh-century pottery, although twelfth- to early-thirteenth-century pottery was also present. A second phase of activity was marked by the cutting of a sequence of narrow ditches on a slightly different alignment, which contained pottery ranging in date between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries and are interpreted as a sequence of boundary definitions dividing medieval village plots. Alignment of the earlier building suggests the possibility that the main street was at that time located further to the north than now.