| Abstract: |
The approved WSI proposed that the evaluation fieldwork comprised the excavation of 100 trenches measuring 50m in length and 2m in width and 3 trenches measuring 25m in length and 2m in width. The WSI also included for the provision of contingency trenching (equivalent of up to 2% of the proposed development area) to be used if requested. In the event, one contingency trench (Field 12, Trench 103) was excavated. The trenches were targeted to test the identified geophysical anomalies and to provide a representative sample of the remainder of the site.
Minor amendments to a limited number of trenches were undertaken to avoid tree cover (Trenches 33, 36 and 97) and modern utilities (Trench 97) but were excavated within the spirit of the approved trench layout. The two proposed trenches within Field 27 (Trenches 94 and 95) were not excavated due to crop cover, and 15 trenches in Fields 14, 19 and 25 were not excavated due to waterlogged ground conditions. During February and March 2022, Cotswold Archaeology carried out an archaeological evaluation of land at Laynes Wood, Highleadon, Gloucestershire. A total of 87 trenches were excavated.
Two distinct areas of archaeological activity were identified (Areas A and B), both of which correlated with the results of the preceding geophysical survey. Elsewhere, evidence for archaeological activity was much more limited and comprised ditches and ponds.
The identified archaeological activity in the northern land parcels, Area A, correlated closely with geophysical evidence for a series of rectilinear features, in the form of enclosures, suggestive of agricultural activity and located on a ridge of locally high ground. Although early/ mid 1st to 2nd-century Roman artefacts were present, the recovered assemblage is more typically dominated by 2nd to 4th-century, or broadly dated Roman, ceramics. Evidence for iron working residues was also recovered.
To the south of Red Brook, the proposed development area was dominated by low lying land associated with the flood plain. Sequences of alluvium of c.1.5m in depth were identified during this evaluation. Further geoarchaeological investigations were subsequently carried out by ARCA and will be reported on separately by that organisation.
The Roman activity identified in the southern land parcels, Area B, comprised a series of ditches with further evidence for iron working residue being present. |
