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Archaeology in the Severn Estuary 19
Title
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Title:
Archaeology in the Severn Estuary 19
Series
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Series:
Archaeology in the Severn Estuary
Volume
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Volume:
19
Publication Type
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Publication Type:
Journal
Publisher
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Publisher:
Severn Estuary Levels Research Committee (SELRC)
Year of Publication
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Year of Publication:
2008
Source
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Source:
ADS Archive (ADS Archive)
Created Date
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Created Date:
09 Oct 2017
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Abstract
The Upper and Middle Wentlooge Sequence and Environments at Plot 8000, The Western Approaches Distribution Park, Avonmout, South Gloucestershire
Catherine Barnett
Rob G Scaife
Nick Truckle
Jack Russell
A borehole survey and archaeological investigations undertaken in advance of development at Plot 8000 of the Western Approach Distribution Park, Avonmouth, South Gloucestershire, enabled examination of the deep Wentlooge Formation (lower, middle and upper). The recovered sedimentary sequence of middle Wentlooge estuarine silts and peats and their associated palaeoenvironmental remains were analysed and dated to the middle Neolithic to middle Bronze Age using radiocarbon. It is demonstrated that following fully marine conditions at the Site in the early-middle Holocene, lower energy estuarine conditions expanded. A subsequent shift in the proximity of the Site to the estuary mouth in the middle Holocene is demonstrated by a microfaunal assemblage indicative of intertidal mudflats and low marsh environment. Stabilisation of sediments by emergent vegetation and the formation of stretches of wet marsh and terrestrial fen environments adjacent to mudflats with brackish creeks occurred from the middle Neolithic. Drier areas were well-wooded and there is evidence for the expansion in heathland and/or raised mire vegetation at this time. A reversion to dominantly estuarine and salt marsh conditions occurred, still within the middle Neolithic period, in response to positive eustatic change. Evidence for prehistoric human activity is scarce but pieces of comminuted charcoal occur in two thin layers of middle Neolithic and early Bronze Age date, the latter followed by possible evidence for expansion of pasture. Unlike the adjacent Plot 4000, the Site showed no evidence for Roman activity, with only ephemeral featuresof 18th-20th century date found, indicating this area was more marginal to settlement due to its topography and waterlogged nature.
Publications List
J J Foster
Publications List
Archaeology in the Severn Estuary 2008
Stephen J Rippon
This note is a brief update of the work and lectures the SELRC has hosted over the year
Back Cover
Back Cover
Cover
Cover
Table of contents
Table of contents
The Archaeology and Palaeoenvironment of Baltmoor Wall, Somerset Levels, The Lower Tone Flood Defence Scheme
Martin A Watts
Rob G Scaife
Observations and palaeoenvironmental samples were taken during engineering works to Baltmoor Wall, a medieval flood defence embankment between East Lyng and Athelney Hill, Somerset. Pottery recovered from beneath Baltmoor Wall indicates construction of the embankment in the 14th or 15th century, agreeing with the historical evidence. Evidence for an early medieval bank and ditch was also recorded, the earliest known excavated features from Athelney Hill. A number of samples taken through the Holocene sequence of alluvial silts and peat were assessed for their palaeoenvironmental potential with regard to their pollen, diatom, foraminifera and plant macrofossil content. All of these profiles were dated to either the 2nd millennium BC (Bronze Age), or 1st millennium AD (Roman to medieval), and two profiles, one from each of these periods, were selected for detailed analysis. The results show that, throughout the Bronze Age, the surrounding environment was dominated locally by woodland, with oak, hazel, lime and ash. The depositional environment changed from a grass/sedge fen in the earlymiddle Bronze Age to a wetland carr woodland, regressing to a grass-sedge fen in later Bronze Age, possibly due to widespread positive eustatic changes. Retrieved late Bronze Age timbers may have come from a trackway, perhaps constructed in response to the increasing local wetness. The presence of cereal pollen indicates a general background of arable agriculture throughout the sequence, but probably not in the immediate vicinityA similar depositional sequence was apparent from the 1st millennium AD, with a grass/sedge fen of the early Roman period giving way to a drier swamp and ultimately alder carr environment, but which in the 11th to 12th century also regressed back to a wetter floodplain, possibly with episodes of marine incursion. Water management by the monks of Athelney Abbey from the 12th century onwards probably contributed. The local environment was dominated by herbs and grasses with few trees and shrubs. Pollen evidence again indicates a general background of arable agriculture and some evidence for increasing pasture. Thick deposits of colluvium recorded over the early medieval bank and ditch appear to provide firm evidence for soil erosion on Athelney Hill, probably due to arable farming following the founding of the abbey in the late 9th century AD.
Later Quaternary Carbonate Diagenesis in the Severn Estuary Levels, Some Introductory Examples
John R L Allen
Examples are described and briefly interpreted of four styles of carbonate diagenesis which have the potential to affect the preservation of environmental and archaeological evidence in the area. Local calcite cementation prior to the formation of a (?late glacial) head gave rise to irregular finger- to sheet-like bodies in the otherwi e unconsolidated Ipswichian shoreface/beach bioclastic sands exposed at Gold Cliff Island. Flushing by meteoric waters under toxic conditions was the likely cause. The roots of early-mid Holocene forest trees that grew on and penetrated the head on the slopes of the Island became encrusted with siderite-calcite, and these minerals were also precipitated as irregular layers. Meteoric waters were again probably responsible, but, in the presence of abundant plant matter, reducing and anoxic (but largely nonsulphidic) conditions prevailed. The modern high salt marshes associated with the Rumney Formation in the Severn Estuary are locallydecalcified. At Cake Pill calcite has been precipitated within the silts of the formation under oxic conditions as a number of horizons of calcite poupées. As exemplified by exposures at Awre, calcite concretions can also be found in saltmarsh silts of mid Holocene age. Decalcified silts of this date are known locally, but the timing of decalcification and concretion-formation in their case is unknown, but could be penecontemporaneous, like the occurrence at Cake Pill.
Romano-British Iron Making in the Severn Estuary Levels, Towards a Metallurgical Landscape
John R L Allen
At 15 main sites, and three supplementary ones, on or closely associated with the Holocene outcrop of the Severn Estuary Levels there is evidence for Romano-British iron-making in the form of various associations of ore, furnace lining, tap slag, furnace bottoms, and hammerscale. At one site ore crushing platforms, stores of clay, and numerous shaft furnaces are known, and at another a probable bloom was found. The iron-making on the Levels occurred chiefly in the later Roman period and at several sites was on a scale sufficient to support an export market. Mines in the Forest of Dean supplied rich ores, which were widely distributed by land and water on both sides of the Severn within the wider Dean region. The evidence of charcoal associated with iron-making materials points to organized charcoal-burning using small roundwood cut from local, probably managed woodlands substantial in area. Throughout the period both the Iron Age simple bowl furnace and more technologically-advanced tappable furnaces were simultaneously in use. A set of 113 geochemical analyses of slags from the sites suggests that a wide variety of local clays were used to build furnaces, and that those of the simple bowl type were less efficient and more difficult to operate consistently than the tappable ones, probably chiefly shaft furnaces. Bowl furnaces were dug into the ground using mainly mattocks or entrenching tools, to judge from the casts of digging marks found on the undersides of furnace bottoms. The operation of the two kinds of furnace, and the processes occurring within them, appear on geochemical grounds to have differed in significant details. Blooms appear to have been purified at some of the smelting sites. The fate of iron marketed from the Severn Estuary Levels is so far unknown archaeologically.
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Notes for Contributors
Notes to Contributors