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Details results of excavations along the A477 from St Clears to Red
Roses during the Road Improvement Scheme, 2012. Finds include a
Mesolithic site in the lower Taf valley; early Neolithic pits and a
post-built structure at Cildywyll; the remains of an Early Bronze
Age barrow, 38 burials (some urned), a pyre site, and a Middle
Bronze Age drying oven near St Clears; and A Bronze Age burnt mound
near Red Roses.
Two enclosures were recorded - near Rodway was discovered a small
Middle Bronze Age farmstead containing evidence of two roundhouses,
with associated pottery and plant remains; and at Sandy Lane a
Roman villa was shown to have developed from a Late Iron Age
ridge-top settlement.
Archaeological surveys and excavations were carried out between
2006 and 2010 in advance of the construction of a gas pipeline in
the Gloucestershire Cotswolds. They resulted in the discovery of
many new sites and the investigation of eighteen of them dating
from the prehistoric to medieval periods. Early Neolithic and
Beaker/Early Bronze Age pits in the southern part of the route near
Winstone, suggest transitory occupation in early prehistoric times.
Early Bronze Age cremation graves on lower ground near Stanway were
associated with two slightly later ring-ditches, and another Bronze
Age ring-ditch was excavated at Foxcote Hill. A segmented boundary
ditch near Winstone was also the location of Iron Age and Roman
activity. An Iron Age settlement on Salter's Hill, Winchcombe,
included an Early Iron Age roundhouse, while Middle Iron Age
grain-storage pits here and elsewhere indicated other farming
settlements. Late Iron Age and Roman occupations in the high Wolds
showed a range of remains, including unusual deposits of artefacts,
animal bones and burials. A fragmentary sequence of Anglo-Saxon
boundary burials was found at the southern end of the route near
Sapperton. In the same area, two 12th- to 13th-century buildings
near Overley Wood may have been part of the medieval settlement of
Pinbury. Trackways revealed near Coberley, Foxcote and Hailes
linked rural settlements in historical times. The range of sites
and finds from these investigations provide important new
information on the human past across parts of a landscape in many
respects considered to be marginal.
The Iron Age and Middle Saxon sites are described and discussed in
detail. Both sites consisted mainly of ditched enclosures with
sparser numbers of pits and other features. They yielded
significant artefactual assemblages and palaeo-environmental and
economic material, including some waterlogged and mineralised plant
remains for the Middle Saxon period. Comparisons between the
periods show a greater emphasis on sheep rearing in the Middle
Saxon period than in the Iron Age, and a more varied diet for the
inhabitants, including fish and hedgerow fruits. Both periods of
occupation are in many respects typical of broader trends. The Iron
Age enclosures formed part of an extensive permanent occupation of
the Isle of Ely from 400-300 BC, with reorganisation in the 1st
century AD. The beginning of Middle Saxon settlement around AD 700
and its contraction around AD 850 can be attributed to the wider
fortunes of the monastic centre on the island.
Archaeological excavation of about 11ha of land at Towers Fen,
Thorney, Peterborough (England), investigated part of an extensive
pattern of ditched enclosures and fields associated with several
waterholes and two ponds. One large pit, which may have been a
waterhole, yielded Early Bronze Age pottery and is radiocarbon
dated to the terminal 3rd millennium BC. Two other dates from the
ponds came out at around 1500-1300 BC. The other features were
probably also Middle to Late Bronze Age although the limited
quantity of pottery was not datable precisely. Waterlogged material
recovered from the deeper features included most of an unusual
wooden tub or bucket, as well as other pieces of worked wood. The
palaeo-environmental evidence from pollen, plant macro-fossils,
insects and charred plant remains indicated that the land supported
a mosaic of woodland, scrub, arable fields, meadow and short grazed
grassland. A wide variety of trees was present, particularly
wet-loving species such as willow and alder, and there was abundant
evidence for coppicing. Nearby excavations at Pode Hole, and the
wider picture provided by plotted cropmarks, indicate that the site
formed part of an extensive prehistoric landscape. It is suggested
that the Bronze Age agricultural landscape developed piecemeal and
was based upon a mixed arable and pastoral economy. This contrasts
with Fengate and other landscapes of this period where large-scale
land divisions have been related to intensive livestock management.
The sparse evidence for contemporaneous settlement is typical of
many sites of this period.
This excavation report details work carried out as a result of the
A34/M4 Junction improvement. The finds were somewhat fragmentary
but showed activity in the Mid to Late Bronze Age, then a gap
followed by renewed activity in the Late Iron Age and Roman
periods, with only a scattering of later, Saxon, finds. Finds
included worked and burnt flint, pottery and some Roman metal finds
such as coins and spoons.
Archaeological work ahead of pipeline construction in East and
South Devon led to the excavation of over thirty sites spanning the
earlier Neolithic to early modern times. Early features included a
wide scatter of pits dating to the Neolithic and Beaker periods (c.
3700-2000 BC), and a variety of Middle Bronze Age features that
included evidence for land division in the Otter valley and South
Devon. Iron Age activity was relatively uncommon but included iron
smelting near Dartington in South Devon and piecemeal settlement
more widely. Later remains included evidence for a hillslope
enclosure close to the River Dart and an open settlement engaging
in pewter manufacture close to the River Avon, which were both
Roman in date. There was also a medieval sunken outbuilding near
Powderham containing charred cereals (believed to be a first for
Devon), as well as a cob linhay relating to the mapped 19th-century
rural landscape near Exton. Although none of the sites were
particularly rich in artefacts, more than fifty radiocarbon dates
have added considerably to our understanding of the changes in
human activity, land use and environment over the past 5,000 years
across these parts of Devon.
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