Title: |
Archaeological borehole survey on the Cathedral Green and St Andrew's and St Catherine's Chapel, Exeter Cathedral, Exeter, Devon |
Series: |
Oakford Archaeology unpublished report series
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Downloads: |
oakforda1-284633_1.pdf (6 MB)
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Download
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Licence Type: |
ADS Terms of Use and Access
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DOI |
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Publication Type: |
Report (in Series)
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Abstract: |
In April 2017 Oakford Archaeology monitored the installation of four borehole piezometers on Exeter Cathedral Green and a fifth in St Catherine's Chapel within the Cathedral. Two (boreholes 1-2) were located in the former cemetery on the north side of the nave, and two (boreholes 3-4) further to the east in the area formerly occupied by the Treasurer's House. The exercise allowed the recording of the full depth of archaeological deposits in parts of the Cathedral Close where only shallow excavations have been undertaken in the past, providing valuable information towards the modelling of deposits in the Close. Deposits are 1.7-1.8m deep in the area of the Treasurer's House and St Catherine's Chapel, 1.55m deep towards the northern side of the cemetery and 2.1m deep in the part of the cemetery closest to the cathedral. In Boreholes 1 and 2, probable early Roman deposits were recorded below medieval/early modern charnel soils, covered in turn by 19th-century landscaping and modern topsoil. Early Roman layers were also encountered in Boreholes 3 and 4; the sequence was especially well-preserved in Borehole 4. Remains of a later wall foundation were also exposed in Borehole 3, below demolition and later landscaping deposits. They probably represent a wall of the medieval Treasurer's House, which stood on the site until its demolition in the early 19th century. No firm interpretation is offered for the undated and apparently uniform deposit recorded in Borehole 5 below the late 13th-century floor of St Catherine's chapel. Finds included Roman pottery, fragments of Roman tile (three of them derived from a building heated by a hypocaust, probably indicating the presence of a late Roman town house with at least one heated room) and a medieval floor-tile. |
Author: |
Marc F R Steinmetzer
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Publisher: |
Oakford Archaeology
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Other Person/Org: |
Historic England (OASIS Reviewer)
Exeter City HER (OASIS Reviewer)
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Year of Publication: |
2017
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Locations: |
Site: |
Cathedral Green |
County: |
Devon |
District: |
Exeter |
Parish: |
EXETER |
Country: |
England |
Grid Reference: 292110, 92580 (Easting, Northing)
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Subjects / Periods: |
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Identifiers: |
OASIS Id: |
oakforda1-284633 |
OBIB: |
17-09 |
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Source: |
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Relations: |
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Created Date: |
02 Jul 2018 |