Devon Archaeol Soc Proc 51

Devon Archaeological Society's 1993 Presidential Lecture.

This report describes the results of two major recording projects carried out in 1990. The excavations located the position of the Exeter-Dorchester Roman road in three places, with indirect evidence for a fourth. The ditches (probably of different phases) of a first-century fort at Woodbury Farm were located, as well as extensive evidence for a later Roman settlement and industrial areas on an adjoining site. In conjunction with evidence from aerial reconnaissance and later geophysical surveys, it is concluded that a Roman mansio was located there and that this is a suitable location for the lost site of Moridunum. Analysis of field patterns and trackways in the area has provided evidence for a Roman origin for elements of the landscape around Axminster. An unexpected find of MBA pottery was also made during the excavation near Burrowshot Cross. There is a discussion of the possible development of the local landscape from prehistoric to medieval times and of the Roman road system in the area. `The Bronze Age pottery from Burrowshot Cross, Axminster' by Henrietta Quinnell (89--91), `Petrological examination' by David Williams (91), and `Catalogue' of the pottery by Henrietta Quinnell (91--2) are followed by `The Roman pottery' by Neil Holbrook (93--8), `Roman iron slag' by Peter Crew (98--9), and `Finds of copper alloy' by Margaret E Snape (99--102). `Ironwork' by A T Croom (102--4), `Roman coins from Woodbury Great Close' by Norman Shiel (105), and`The medieval pottery from Woodbury' by John Allan & G I Langman (105--6) precede the appendices: `Appendix 1: Yarty floodplain, Axminster: pollen and plant macrofossil analyses from former river channels sealed beneath the Roman road' by Vanessa Straker & Julie Jones (106--16); `Appendix 2: Woodbury Great Close: environmental analyses of sediments in the Roman fort ditch' by Vanessa Straker & Julie Jones (116--25); `Appendix 3: ostracods from Woodbury Great Close, Devon' by Eric Robson (125); `Appendix 4: the coleopterous fauna from the Roman fort ditch at Woodbury Great Close, Axminster' by David Smith (125--8); and finally `Appendix 5: research archive reports' (128--9).

A programme of evaluation on the western margin of the site of the two-phase Roman fort is described. The second fort's existence was confirmed by the excavation of its ditch. The results of geophysical survey by the AML are presented. There is a report on the `Roman pottery' by P T Bidwell (157) and an appendix detailing the `Geophysical survey' by Neil Linford (158).

The earthworks and structural remains were surveyed in April 1991. An up-to-date record of the site is presented, including a review of the work of previous writers. Some new observations about the remains arising from the survey are offered and a simple chronological sequence is suggested. The site is particularly important in the historical study of Dartmoor archaeology as it was, in the 1880s, the first tin mill to be excavated or `cleared'.

Describes a fine-grained siltstone wristguard fragment discovered in 1983.

Archaeological excavation was undertaken at in 1993 in order to investigate and record a section across an enclosure site known from aerial reconnaissance. Four exposures of the ditches of a double-ditched enclosure of probable Roman date were recorded, as were four internal features.