During the year the company changed its name to CAMAS Aggregates but its policy towards the archaeology remained the same - to retrieve as much information as possible before gravel extraction destroyed the site forever.
During the year the company changed its name to CAMAS Aggregates but its policy towards the archaeology remained the same - to retrieve as much information as possible before gravel extraction destroyed the site forever.
The remainder of Field B was stripped to a deeper level with approximately 0.5m of topsoil being removed and as predicted, prehistoric features predominated. The first evidence for Bronze Age occupation was found and consisted of a large pit filled with huge quantities of fire-burnt flint. This had been thrown on top of two quern stones, one complete, of greensand and the other, which had been broken in antiquity, carved from the local heathstone. Pottery dated the pit to the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1300 BC). The querns implied possible crop growing and certainly grain processing at that time.
When excavation progressed to Field D later that year, further Bronze Age features were located. The most impressive being an extensive area of finds suggesting pottery production. The 15m spread contained two large dumps of raw clay, one red and the other white together with numerous pottery sherds, worked and burnt flint and lumps of burnt heathstone.
Subsequent fabric analysis has confirmed that ground-down pottery (grog), crushed burnt flint and heathstone were added to the raw clay as filler. The pottery sherds were identified as 'Deverill-Rimbury' ware, again dating to the Middle Bronze Age.
Charcoal pits continued to dominate the archaeological record and a further 83 pits were excavated that year. It was likely that they had had an industrial function, and an association with pottery production was possible.
The most memorable event however, was the discovery of a Roman coin hoard. As Field B was being stripped for the archaeology to proceed, the excavator driver noticed that his bucket had smashed through a pottery vessel from which was spilling hundreds of coppery looking coins. On cleaning, the coins (antoniniani and denarii) were found to be in mint condition and dated from 117-272 AD. The hoard consisted of 1564 coins, which were taken to the British Museum in London for identification. At a later Treasure Trove Inquest, the excavator driver was deemed to have been the 'finder' and he subsequently auctioned the coins, which are now in collections all over the world. It is unfortunate that the hoard, which was an integral part of the archaeological record, had to be dispersed in this way. The pot fragments however were retained by the project. They were identified by the British Museum as locally manufactured 'black burnished ware', which was made on a huge scale during most of the Roman period.
A second smaller hoard was discovered by our metal detectorists. These coins, 34 in total, were dispersed in the ground and may have been in a purse, which had decomposed. Their condition was not particularly good but one coin was very interesting. It was issued in 272 AD in Germany by the emperor Laelian, who only 'reigned' for six weeks before being assassinated. Few coins of this issue survive. The latest coin in this mini-hoard dated to 274 AD.
Evidence for small-scale iron working was discovered and consisted of the fired clay base of a furnace with an associated pit filled with large quantities of slag, spent iron ore, burnt heathstone, burnt flint, charcoal and Roman pottery.
The work had been exhausting but exciting. A huge amount of work was accomplished and the archaeological learning curve had been incredibly steep!
Those involved: