| Abstract: |
The WSI (CA 2016) defined an initial excavation area of 0.42ha, along with provision
for a contingency area for additional stripping of 0.28ha, to achieve a buffer of 10m
beyond the last identified archaeological feature. The WSI also stipulated that if
archaeological features were identified outside the contingency area, stripping would
continue for 10m beyond the last significant feature, in order to define the limits of the
archaeological activity. It was anticipated in the WSI that the maximum extent of the
excavation would be 0.7ha, although as features continued beyond the original
contingency areas, the final total area excavated was approximately 0.8ha. Between June and September 2017, Cotswold Archaeology excavated an area of 0.8ha at
Post Farm, Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, at the request of Linden Homes Western.
A small assemblage of residual flints indicates activity in the area during the Mesolithic, and
three pits were possibly of this date. During the Early and Middle Iron Age, the site was
represented by several pit and posthole clusters. One group of postholes contained examples
of unusual depth, and it is not certain that they were not geological features. The function of
most of the posthole structures is uncertain, although one may have been a grain store. No
domestic structures were identified although the site is interpreted as part of an unenclosed
settlement, with a focus probably located outside the excavated area. Several storage pits
were revealed, including examples with evidence for sterilisation through burning.
Environmental evidence suggests the settlement had a mixed farming economy, and there
was some evidence for small-scale iron smithing. Human remains of probable Iron Age date
included a truncated crouched inhumation burial along with a neonate recovered from a ditch.
After a possible hiatus in the Late Iron Age, the site became the focus for a Roman period
complex farmstead, comprising several successive rectilinear enclosures, a trackway and an
external settlement boundary/enclosure. A domestic focus possibly lay to the north. Finds
suggest an emphasis on the Early Roman period, although the enclosures probably continued
in use until the Late Roman period. The environmental assemblage suggests a mixed farming
economy, with a tentative suggestion that intensive arable farming had possibly affected the
fertility of the soil. Some metalworking also took place at the site. Two deposits of cremated
bone within an enclosure ditch are considered to be possible ritual placements.
During the later Roman period 13 individuals were buried within 12 graves around the edges
of the enclosures; an unusually high proportion of the burials had been buried with ‘alternative’
burial rites, including at least six prone burials, two or three with nails in their mouths, along
with the double burial of a decapitated adult and a prone child. Several individuals showed
evidence for malnutrition, ill health, trauma and disease. Later remains comprised field
boundary ditches of likely post-medieval or later date.
A modest finds assemblage was recovered, including Iron Age and Roman pottery and small
groups of lithics, metalwork, fired clay/daub and stone. A relatively rich assemblage of charred
plant remains indicates the cultivation of hulled barley, emmer and spelt. A small group of
poorly preserved charcoal revealed some evidence for the local landscape in the Iron Age and
Roman periods. A modest and poorly preserved animal bone assemblage includes cattle
sheep/goat, horse or donkey, pig and dog or fox. Five radiocarbon dates have contributed to
our understanding of the chronology of the site. A summary article has been prepared for
publication in Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. |
