The field school is ideal for people who want to get a proper introduction to professional excavation techniques. Excavation will take place on the foundations of an ornamental gateway at the north end of the Broad Drive, near to the mill, and is part of a project to preserve the remaining stonework with a view to potentially reinstating the ornamental gates. The dig day will commence at 9.30am and finish at 4pm, with time for lunch in the middle.

If you wish to sign up to the field school you must be able to attend for all 5 days. Participants who have been on one of Nottinghamshire County Council’s field schools before are welcome to come again, but priority will be given to people who haven’t attended previously.

If you have any questions, or would like to book on to the field school, please get in touch with the Community Archaeology Team, either by email: community.archaeology@nottscc.gov.uk or by telephone: 0115 969 6525.

This summer the Museum of London will return to Syon Park, Hounslow, with digging opportunities for adult and children, it has been announced.  

Having previously focussed on investigating the house of Sir Richard Wynne, a Parliamentarian on whose land the 1641 Battle of Brentford was fought as anti-Royalist forces tried to stop Prince Rupert’s troops reaching London, this year’s excavation will explore how the Roman road and settlement at Brentford has shaped the landscape, and its impact up to the present day.

The site lies close to the main Roman road leading from the capital to Silchester and previous excavations in the park have exposed a wealth of Roman archaeology. Hopes are high for more Roman finds this year.

2013′s archaeological opportunities:

Excavate London: The Romans (adult course)<
24-28 Jun & 1-5 Jul
9.30am – 5pm each day
£275 (no concessions, includes lunch, over 16s only)
A hands-on chance to see how the Romans have impacted on the landscape of Syon Park. Our excavation course provides a week-long introduction to archaeology in practice, suitable for all levels. You’ll explore the techniques of digging and how to unlock the mysteries hidden within landscapes guided by professional MOLA archaeologists and Museum of London curators.
Call the Box Office on 020 7001 9844 to book your place.
For more information contact Kath Creed on 020 7566 9316 or emailcommunityarchaeology@museumoflondon.org.uk

Excavate London: Junction takeover day (ages 14-18)
Sat 6 Jul
10am – 4pm
FREE (14-18 year olds only)
Are you aged between 14 and 18 and interested in Archaeology or History? Join the fun for a hands on day led by the Museum’s youth panel, Junction, exploring what archaeology is and how you can take part.
Contact Kath Creed on 020 7566 9316 or emailcommunityarchaeology@museumoflondon.org.uk to book a place.

Open Day (adult and family event)
Sun 7 Jul
10am – 4pm
FREE
Come to Syon Park for site tours and drop-in workshops to discover what we uncover at Syon, from the finds to the features. Activities available for all the family. Dogs welcome.
Please note: Open day visitors will not be able to excavate on-site.
For more information about the project please contact Kath Creed on 020 7566 9316 or Kate Sumnall on 020 7814 5733 or email:communityarchaeology@museumoflondon.org.uk

It used to be thought that only high-class houses had survived from the Medieval period. Radiocarbon and tree-ring dating has now revealed that thousands of ordinary Medieval homes are still standing in the English Midlands, many now incorporated into des res village homes. Chris Catling reports on how some peasants lived very well in the Middle Ages.

The term ‘peasant’ suggests poverty, ignorance, missing teeth and poor personal hygiene: Baldrick stuff, all threadbare rags, hunched shoulders and a life shared with pigs in a squalid hovel barely adequate to keep out the bitter winter wind. In fact, all that ‘peasant’ really means is that you live mainly off the produce of your own labour. Many a modern allotment holder leads a semi-peasant lifestyle, and there are plenty of contemporary peasants all over southern and Eastern Europe – not to mention those living in hippy communes in west Wales. For peasant, read ‘largely self-sufficient’.

Who are you calling a peasant?
Chris Dyer, author of Making a Living in the Middle Ages, points out that some historians are reluctant to use the term because they think it too imprecise (yet they happily use equally broad terms such as ‘merchant’ and ‘artisan’). Professor Dyer thinks that ‘peasant’ is a very useful word and that nobody has yet devised an adequate substitute to denote people in the lower ranks of society, living in the countryside and gaining their main living from the resources available to them as a result of their own labours. Typically this is based on agricultural production on a piece of land held by customary tenure (common land) or copyhold tenure (in return for which the tenant had to render certain services to the lord of the manor).

Fifteen acres of arable land and pasture is just about enough to keep a family fed, and few peasant smallholdings exceeded 30 acres in extent up to the mid-14th century. One of the economic impacts of the Black Death and climate deterioration from the 1340s was to make more land available; population decline meant that those who survived were in demand as agricultural labourers, able to sell their services for hard cash, rather than land or kind. Peasant landholdings doubled in size in the period 1380 to 1540, enabling peasants to produce a surplus for sale in local markets. Many peasants were also able to supplement their income from pursuing such occupations as mining or fishing, or working as artisans or traders. Initially weak and vulnerable, surviving on a subsistence diet of very basic foods, peasants were increasingly able to afford better clothing, tools, utensils and foodstuffs after the difficult decades of the mid-14th century.

The ‘Great Rebuilding’
In the same way, peasant housing underwent gradual improvement. Once it was believed that Medieval peasant houses were so miserable and insubstantial that no housing from this stratum of society could possibly have survived the 500 years or so that separate us from the Middle Ages. Built of poor-quality materials scavenged from the immediate locality – fallen timber, mud and furze – with animals and humans living in the same structure, they would have needed frequent replacement and would have turned to dark earth within a few years of abandonment.

The standard view was that no ordinary Medieval house could have lasted more than a generation, and this constant need to replace rotting structures was one reason why villages were not static, but moved about in the landscape until the so-called ‘Great Rebuilding’. This began around 1570 and continued into the early 18th century, and marks the era when more solid houses were constructed with chimneys, staircases, glazed windows and private chambers in place of an open hall.

The ‘vernacular threshold’
The homes of higher-income social groups were the first to be rebuilt. Vernacular homes lagged by a few decades. Another phrase in common use among architectural historians is the ‘vernacular threshold’, used to describe the date after which the houses of ordinary people began to be rebuilt in a sufficiently robust form to have survived to the present day. Until recently, that threshold was set somewhere in the later 17th century, partly in the belief that the more substantial timber buildings that had survived from the 16th century or earlier must be the houses of superior types with larger landholdings and higher incomes, such as prosperous farmers and yeomen.

This kind of circular argument, whereby if it survived it could not be a peasant house because peasant houses did not survive, has now been comprehensively undermined by a study initiated by the late Bob Laxton and continued by Nat Alcock, Robert Howard, Dan Miles and Cliff Litton. Their Leverhulme-Trust-funded project set out to investigate cruck houses and to provide more accurate dates for this type of early building.

Crucks of the matter
Cruck buildings, referred to in Medieval documents by the Latin word furcae (fork) are built around pairs of timbers (cruck blades) that extend from the ground all the way to the apex of the roof in a single sweep, forming an arch-like truss. Typically these are houses of three bays, with a truss at each end and two internal trusses. The central bay forms an open hall, without upper floor or chimney, recognisable today by the fact that the surviving roof timbers are covered in soot and tar deposits from smoke rising from a central hearth on the floor below. One of the side bays was used as a service space while the other, the only one with an upper floor, reached by a ladder, provided rooms for sleeping.

To the hovel born
This reconstruction drawing by Pat Hughes shows the house of Robert Dene (who died in 1552) at 2 Church Lane, Stoneleigh, Warwicks, based on the inventory of his possessions attached to his will. This names four rooms: the hall, chamber, solar (upper room) and kitchen, and the contents of each, including trestle table, benches, chairs, cupboards, painted clothes, cushions, tablecloth, wooden chests, beds, bedding, basins, candlesticks, pots, pans, hooks, chains, gridiron, spit, pewter and earthenware dishes, wooden trenchers, mortar, lead weights, and sides of bacon. Further insights into life in a peasant house come from 13th- and 14th-century coroner’s inquests, which tell of children scalded by pots falling over on the open heath, chickens setting fire to the straw on the hall floor, a candle falling over and setting fire to bedding and a thief falling from a ladder while trying to steal a ham hanging from a beam.

Crucks are not the only structural form found in the Midlands. There are also aisled buildings, base crucks (in which the cruck blades only rise as far as a tie beam) and box-framed structures, but these are all minor components among the older timber buildings of the region. With some 3,086 documented examples, crucks are by far the most common type to have survived. Plotted on a distribution map, cruck houses are mainly found in the western Britain and are completely absent from large parts of eastern Britain. This sharp boundary was recognised a long time ago, but has never been explained.

Centuries older than expected
For this study, some 120 houses were examined in great detail in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Leicestershire, Oxford and Warwick, with a few also in Gloucester and Nottinghamshire. Of these, 83 were found to have primary timbers suitable for carbon dating and dendrochronology. The results, to everyone’s surprise, showed that nearly all the cruck buildings sampled were built during the 300-year period from the 1260s to the 1550s: in other words, a long time before that 17th-century vernacular threshold.

But can we really claim that these buildings are vernacular, and do they justify the term ‘peasant house’? The authors of the study answer this by turning the old argument on its head: in place of the doctrine that all early houses must be high status, they say that so many of these houses have survived that they cannot possibly all be of manorial status or the houses of the wealthiest members of the community. ‘When a village has ten or even twenty such houses, it is a safe deduction that they were the homes of ordinary people including… the whole hierarchy of rural society, from substantial and middling peasants down to a few smallholders’, they conclude. In other words, these may not be the houses of the very poorest peasants, but they are of peasant status, nonetheless.

This article is an extract, but you can read the full text in CA 279

When ploughing revealed traces of a ring ditch near the Great Dorset Cursus, it appeared to be just another satellite structure speckling the environs of this monumental earthwork. Excavation revealed a fascinating set of burials and tantalising traces of a macabre Bronze Age tradition of displaying the deceased. Are drill holes in the bones traces of an attempt to peg decaying corpses together?

Regeneration of Southampton’s former French Quarter provided the opportunity for the largest ever examination of the city’s historic core. The results tell a story of boom and bust in a vibrant port town, as armies, merchants and artisans came and went. 

Finally, excavations in Cumbria have unearthed Papcastle Roman fort’s bathhouse. Intended to allow Rome’s soldiers to enjoy the trappings of Classical civilisation in the frontier zone, by the early 3^rd century AD the heating system was choked with dead goats. What does this mean for military hygiene, and why did a body suffering multiple pathologies end up in the ruins?          

FEATURES

PEASANT HOUSES IN MIDLAND ENGLAND

How the Black Death prompted  a building boom
While high-status Medieval houses are a celebrated part of the historic environment, new evidence suggests that many more humble dwellings also survive in English villages.

KEEPING THE FAMILY TOGETHER

Canada Farm’s Bronze Age burials
What do enigmatic signs of defleshing and drilling on seven ancient skeletons add to our understanding of whether the prehistoric dead were left to rest in peace?

SOUTHAMPTON’S FRENCH QUARTER

Trade, Prosperity, War and Poverty at a Channel port
The largest excavation to take place in Southampton’s historic centre has shed new light on the city’s French connections, before and after the Norman Conquest.

RETURN TO DERVENTIO

The body in the bath house
Investigations on the other side of the river to Papcastle’s extensive Roman remains have revealed traces of more substantial buildings, and an unexpected burial.

NEWS

Bedale’s hoarded secrets; Roman track and ore; Walbrook channel: mystery panel; Ringing the changes?; Flodden field day; Edinburgh: a knight’s tale?; Unpicking hidden Holcombe; Fermanagh crannog’s remains

REGULARS

Context
Rediscovering Worsley New Hall, Salford

Reviews
Iron Age Hillforts in Britain and Beyond; Viking identities; Handbook to Roman Legionary Fortresses; Worlds of Arthur

Sherds
Chris Catling’s irreverent take on heritage issues.

Last Word      
CA’s Editor in Chief Andrew Selkirk examines the balance between authenticity and cost when restoring historic buildings.

Odd Socs
The Traditional Paint Forum

Richard Buckley takes CA conference attendees through the discovery of Richard III’s remains. Image: Aerial-Cam

In September 2012, archaeologists from the University of Leicester announced a significant development in their search for the remains of Richard III, England’s last Medieval monarch: the discovery of human remains thought to be those of the lost king, beneath a carpark in the city centre. Five months later, following an exhaustive battery of scientific tests, the team were able to confirm that these were indeed the bones of the ill-fated Plantaganet.

At our annual conference, Current Archaeology Live! 2013,  ULAS’ Richard Buckley, lead archaeologist on the Greyfriars Project, shared the full story of this astonishing piece of archaeological detective work with over 400 rapt attendees. For those who were unable to make it to the conference, however, Richard has kindly agreed to let us make his talk available on our website. Enjoy!

For more information on the search for Richard III, see our features in CA 272 and 277

In CA 271 we brought you news of astonishing Mesolithic finds at Vespasian’s Camp on Salisbury Plain, a potentially game-changing site for our understanding of the Stonehenge landscape.

With the site about to star in the first episode of a new BBC archaeology series, we caught up with project director, Buckingham University’s David Jacques, to find out the latest.

CA: Why did you choose this site to investigate?
DJ:  As a student working on a project in Amesbury, I wondered why Vespasian’s Camp was such an archaeological blind spot. When I realised that it was because of assumptions about the extent of 18th century landscaping, I investigated further and found that an area northeast of the camp was largely untouched.

In 2005 I met VC’s Site Custodian, Mike Clarke, for the first time, who also thought this area was interesting – it has been a twinkle in his eye long before anyone else. He allowed a small team of us to explore a feature assumed to be an 18th century pond over a weekend, and by the end of that time we knew we were in fact dealing with an ancient spring head containing pristine prehistoric artefacts.

CA: In a nutshell, what have you found?
DJ: The oldest settlement in the Stonehenge area by far, with the longest time depth of use – an incredible c.3000 years (radiocarbon dated to 7500-4750 BC). It looks very likely that we have found the community which put up the first monuments at Stonehenge: the 9th-7th millennia BC pine posts found beneath the Stonehenge carpark.

CA: What’s new since your feature in CA 271?
DJ: We have two new radiocarbon dates, 7596-7542 BC and 5469-5320 BC (see CA 275). These are hugely significant because they mean we have a sequence of dates running through every millennium from the 8^th-5th millennia BC, seriously strengthening the argument for regular visits to the site across this period. The early date chimes connects directly with the date of post ‘B’ in the Stonehenge carpark, and is in range of the other post. When Josh Pollard, Mike Parker Pearson, and Peter Rowley Conwy visited the site in April, Josh Pollard said: ‘your team has found the community which put up the first monument at Stonehenge.’

Peter Rowly Conwy has also identified an area along the spring line which might have been a lagoon for canoes. We have all felt for some time that log boat transport would be a perfect way in and out of the site, and our site’s wood supplies, plus the fact that we have found 7 tranchet axes there – more than has been found across the whole of the rest of Salisbury Plain – suggests VC would have been a good place to make them.

Mike Clarke has noticed that the spring area has an extended growing season, something confirmed by Peter Rowley Conwy. This may have attracted the large animals to the site whose remains we have found – we now have 350 bones. Given that Star Carr, the biggest-known Mesolithic site in NW Europe, has just over 800, but found over a 60 year period, our site has the potential to be even bigger.

Finally, we also now have the results for analysis of ReadingUniversity’s first environmental sample from the Mesolithic contexts. The soil is alkaline, so it has destroyed much of the pollen, but there are traces of dandelion (which suggest nearby disturbed ground – animal trampling?) and alder. We also have microscopic particles of charred material. Barry Bishop says that the amount of burnt flint we have is suggestive of nearby hearths.

CA: How did you date the finds?
DJ: Through radiocarbon analysis of 2 aurochs bones (a tooth and a piece of femur), and a tusk and a tooth from wild pigs, at GlasgowUniversity’s SUERC lab.

CA: Who do you think was using this site?
DJ: Due to long period of activity at VC, we think we are dealing with relatively stable communities, living semi-permanently on site, who were regularly visited by, and visited, groups from a widely dispersed area. We have evidence for potential large scale feasting, fires, and instances of cross cultural exchange (the slate tool – see below). This site boasted incredibly good resources:  year-round food, easily accessible fresh water, large animals to hunt, plenty of material to make shelters and canoes from, good fuel sources, good flint, and an extended growing season at the spring (important for tempting animals down). It is also sheltered from the prevailing south westerly wind – when I was last at the site in early April there was a snow storm and the camp felt like it was still the warmest place in the Stonehenge landscape!

CA: Why is this site so important for our understanding of Stonehenge?
DJ: Our radiocarbon dates link the earliest Mesolithic monuments at Stonehenge to almost the start of the Neolithic. These are unique dates for Stonehenge. Previously there was no evidence of meaningful Mesolithic occupation of the landscape, and now we are looking at a place which may have kept traditions for practices in and around Stonehenge alive for 3000 years before the Neolithic establishment of the ritual landscape.  We are also getting glimpses of what those practices were, including hunting huge animals. Animals like the aurochs may have been symbolically as well as physically powerful, and we have a huge amount of aurochs bone at VC. Might the Stonehenge area have been a sacred ground where widely dispersed communities came to hunt? Is that why the posts are there?

Our finds challenge the orthodoxy that there was little Mesolithic presence at Stonehenge and that what there was died out long before the Neolithic revolution. In fact, there could be a much more interesting story of cultural appropriation or merging. Some of the data coming out of the site has the potential to rewrite ideas about the British Mesolithic.

CA: Do you have a favourite find from the site?
DJ: The slate tool, because this material is totally exotic for Stonehenge. This piece is likely to come from the west somewhere, and yet it has been worked in the style a Horsham Point, a tool type from Sussex. This is exciting evidence for cultural exchange and throws up profound questions about language and communication between groups as well. It is also the only prehistoric slate tool ever found in the UK, which is nice!

CA: Can members of the public see any of your finds?
DJ: Yes, there is a brilliant exhibition at Amesbury Museum, which is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I would encourage everyone to go – you can see a really good selection of the stone tools, bones and burnt flint there, plus lots of excellent photos. You can also talk to people who have worked on site. Find out more on the  museum’s Facebook page.

CA: When will you next be working on site?
DJ: Funding permitting, we hope to be there in the autumn for a week or so. If we‘re lucky with funding and the water levels are low enough, however, it would be great to get there in late summer.

CA: There has been a huge amount of media excitement about your findings, and now VC is going to be on TV. How does it feel to have so much interest in your project?
DJ: It is completely surreal for those of us who have been involved since the beginning, because this project has been so small-scale, running on the tiniest budget, and we have had barely 30 days on site. But on the other hand, we have all had this creeping realisation that we are dealing with a potential game changer for Stonehenge studies, and so many academics and prehistorians – Dave McOmish, Mark Bowden, and Jim Leary from English Heritage, Professors Tony Legge, Peter Rowley-Conwy, Tim Darvill, and Richard Bradley, to name just a few – have all been really supportive and encouraging of our project.

We feel a mix of being truly lucky, amazed, but also proud of what we have achieved. ‘It has been a really special project which has genuinely closely involved the local community of Amesbury, as well as many OU students. They have been integral to many of the identifications and ideas generations on site (for example, local resident Tim Roberts was the first to come up with the log boat concept). In a way, all of our periodic visitations to the site, bringing together dispersed groups alongside a settled community, and which involve feasting and cultural exchanges (especially on the Saturday nights!) may mirror some of what was happening at the site many thousands of years ago.

Stonehenge: the missing link (episode 1 of The Flying Archaeologist) is on BBC4 at 20.30, 29 April 2013. For more about Vespasian’s Camp, see our feature in CA 271.

Image courtesy of the Portable Antiquities Scheme

Standing just 4cm high, St George raises his lance to strike a fatal blow against the tiny dragon staring back at him. His outstretched hand probably once gripped his scaly foe by the tail, though they have since broken apart. Discovered by a metal detectorist in the Carlisle area last April, these silver gilt figures were handed in to the Portable Antiquities Scheme and are now being valued under the Treasure Act.

George’s full-plate armour and the plate mitts protecting his hands are characteristic of the 15^th century, and a small loop on his back suggests that the figures were once intended to be attached to fabric. They might have once adorned the hat or clothing of a Medieval pilgrim, perhaps commemorating a visit to the chapel at Windsor Castle which houses relics attributed to the saint including two fingers, part of his arm, his heart and a piece of his skull.

Stuart Noon, Finds Liaison Officer for Lancashire and Cumbria, believes the pair might have had a more chivalrous owner, however. He suggested that the fine work indicates they belonged to a high-status individual, perhaps a knight, who could have worn the badge on his doublet.

‘It’s a really unusual piece, incredibly detailed for something of this size – it really is a work of art,’ he said. ‘Because it is so beautifully made I would think it more likely that this was the emblem of a knight rather than a pilgrim’s badge. It is quite a high status piece made by a top craftsman and I suspect it would belong to someone high up.’

This article was published in CA 266

About a mile east of Stonehenge, an impressive promontory rises out of Salisbury Plain to around 95m above sea level. Situated close to the Avenue and Bluestonehenge (CA 237), commanding extensive views over the river Avon, and surrounded at all points of the compass by important prehistoric and historic sites and monuments, this spot might be expected to have held pivotal cultural significance for the plain’s early inhabitants for its location alone. But until our small-scale Open University excavations began in 2005, the Iron Age fortifications cresting the hill had received little archaeological attention.

Dubbed ‘Vespasian’s Camp’ by the Elizabethan antiquarian William Camden – despite having no connection to the Roman commander (and later emperor) who subdued Britain’s southwest in the aftermath of the AD 43 Roman conquest (CA 196) – the full archaeological potential of the 2,500-year-old hillfort only started to be appreciated recently. While its substantial ramparts enclosing a 16ha space have earned the site Scheduled Monument status, it was widely assumed that much of the Camp’s archaeology had been destroyed centuries ago.

In the 18^th century the Marquess of Queensberry commissioned major landscaping works to the grounds surrounding Amesbury Abbey – later the Antrobus Estate – transforming them into gardens with ornamental walkways, grottoes, and extensive tree planting.

It was thought that the hillfort had been included in this project – a belief which, together with the fact that the Camp has been in private hands since the Tudor era, helped to create and reinforce conditions whereby Vespasian’s Camp became an archaeological blind spot in an area world famous for its archaeology.

Springing a surprise
This all changed following research of documents relating to the site and nearby farms. Examining property deeds and estate records revealed that the Camp itself had escaped significant landscaping, and in 2005 our fieldwork started. Following a meeting with landowners Sir Edward and Lady Antrobus, and their Site Custodian Mike Clarke, we whittled six possible targets down to one: a low-lying hollow northeast of the Camp, outside of the scheduled area, known as Blick Mead.

Over a long weekend that autumn, a team of 20 recovered over 200 worked flints through test-pitting and surveying, ranging from early Bronze Age-Beaker scrapers to Mesolithic tools. We also made another important discovery:  a water feature, hitherto assumed to have been an 18^th-century pond, was neither so simple nor so recent. Geologist Peter Hoare identified it as an ancient spring – the largest of a complex of such in the immediate area – while Reading University’s Head of Environmental Science, Nick Branch, suggests it might have once been part of a seasonal lake. As well as being increasingly regarded as ‘special places’ in the early landscape, springs have potential for excellent preservation conditions. With Blick Mead’s close proximity to such a wealth of archaeological sites and the river Avon, it was clearly a promising target for closer investigation. We have returned to the site every year since, but it was only recently that the spring yielded its most exciting finds.

Cutting-edge research
Since 2010 we have started to uncover a very large amount of Mesolithic material in three small trenches around the spring, sealed by a layer of silt. Previously only scattered handfuls of Mesolithic material were known from Salisbury Plain, with the largest assemblage comprising 50 pieces of worked flint, found on King Barrow Ridge about a mile from our site. Our findings have dwarfed this: around 10,000 pieces of struck flint, several kilograms of burnt flint, and over 300 pieces of animal bone. Forming a layer 12cm thick, these finds were described by Professor Tim Darvill during a recent visit to the site as ‘the most important discovery at Stonehenge in many years’.

These thousands of tools include an impressive range of implements, from microliths, backed blades (used for making knives, arrows and other composite tools), and burins for working bone and antler, to notched tools (perhaps for cutting sinews or stripping bark to make baskets) and scrapers, as well as cores and knapping debitage representing all stages of the production process. We have also recovered three tranchet axes, a significant haul given that only 5 have ever been found in the whole Salisbury Plain landscape before.

Virtually all of these tools are in pristine condition – indeed, they are still so sharp that some of the team cut their fingers on the blades – suggesting they were either knapped in situ or deposited in the spring/lake shortly after manufacture. The flints are currently being examined in detail and catalogued by lithics expert Barry Bishop, funded by a grant from the Wiltshire Unitary Authority. Barry suggests that the thick layer of worked flint exposed by our trenches could represent a deposit carrying on for hundreds of metres more – perhaps, as put forward by Nick Branch, forming a jetty or platform seasonally revealed when water levels dropped.

Barry also highlighted the fact that we have some tool types which are usually found outside Wiltshire, such as Horsham points, typically associated with the 8^th millennium BC. Most intriguingly, we also recovered a small worked slate point shaped like a microlith: the only prehistoric slate tool we know of ever discovered in the UK. By itself this would be interesting, but the fact it was found in a Mesolithic context just over a mile from Stonehenge makes it very significant. Tim Darvill says the slate is a kind of metamudstone, which would make the tool more durable. We are still trying to determine the provenance of the stone. There is no slate in the Stonehenge area – indeed, the nearest source we know of is in north Wales. It could have been fashioned from glacial erratic, though we are not aware of any such slate erratics in the vicinity. The alternative is that this points to a significant movement of people and ideas, pre-dating what went on at Stonehenge by thousands of years. All signs point to this site being regarded as a special place to gather.

Mesolithic missing link
More exciting still, interim conclusions suggest that at Blick Mead we have found evidence for a rare type of Mesolithic domestic site termed a ‘homebase’; a living place repeatedly revisited by families. As well as being a focus for toolmaking, it appears that the spring was also the venue for huge feasts. The large quantities of burnt flint – rarely found with such abundance in secure Mesolithic contexts – indicate cooking and the heating of water.

Cambridge University’s Tony Legge, who worked on the faunal remains from Star Carr, Britain’s largest known Mesolithic settlement (CA 264), analysed the hundreds of cooked animal bones found at Blick Mead and found that 60% came from aurochs. These very large extinct wild cattle were the most powerful animal in the landscape – weighing in at around 1.5 tonnes they were twice as heavy as a modern cow – and probably the most symbolically potent too. Two radiocarbon dates obtained from a fragment of aurochs bone and a tooth have shown that the occupation of the site was no short-lived event, with activity spanning the period from 6250-4700 BC. The latter end of this range provides the only radiocarbon date from between 5000-4000 BC ever recovered from the Stonehenge environs and brings us within range of the Neolithic – presenting us with some huge questions. What is the connection between our site and that of Stonehenge? Could it provide the long-sought ‘missing link’ between the Mesolithic and Neolithic on Salisbury Plain? Blick Mead’s ’homebase’ is the oldest place of residence ever found in the area. Have we found a site which was used for so long that it became a repository of stories about traditions of local veneration?

The only other known Mesolithic ‘place’ in the landscape is the site of the enigmatic posts found underneath Stonehenge car park in 1966 (CA 212). Dating to somewhere between 8800-6600 BC, these appear to be ‘marking’ the future location of Stonehenge as somewhere special, representing the first monumental features in the landscape. With the posts just a mile from Blick Mead, can these sites be linked as points of cultural significance in the millennia preceding the construction of Stonehenge? Perhaps this is a key reason for the later siting of the Neolithic monument.

Nearby, ‘Bluestonehenge’ (constructed around 3000 BC) also stands immediately adjacent to a spring, which was formed at around the same time, and as a result of very similar geological conditions and processes, as ours at Blick Mead. Mesolithic flint work has been found close to this site as well, which raises another tantalising question: were Salisbury Plain’s ancient springs treated as very early sites of veneration? And did the practices in and around them later become monumentalised in the Neolithic?

Recurring rituals
While Blick Mead was clearly an important centre of human activity during the Mesolithic period, archaeological evidence has shown that occupation at the site continued for thousands of years afterwards. English Heritage Inspectors David McOmish, David Field and Mark Bowden identified a multi-phase field system beside the spring, with Bronze Age origins and use continuing through the Romano-British period. Subsequent excavations by Open University students and local Amesbury residents confirmed this span of activity, uncovering artefacts from across the date range.

In 2008 we found a copper-alloy dagger refashioned from the tip of a Middle Bronze Age rapier. With only one rivet securing the blade to the handle it was probably too flimsy to have been functional. Perhaps this implement had some kind of ceremonial purpose. The object had been bent, broken, and placed in the spring. Together with a Middle Bronze Age chisel found last year, CambridgeUniversity’s David Barrowclough suggests that in around 1400 BC the spring was being used as a place of ritual weapon deposition.

Adding to this picture, in 2010 a seven–year-old girl– the daughter of one of our local volunteers – discovered two ‘duck-shaped’ pieces of flint together in the spring. There is some debate as to whether they were deliberately shaped, or whether this form is due to natural processes, but they were likely to have been representational objects chosen for special deposition. Waterfowl are a known feature of late Bronze Age/Iron Age ritual iconography, traditionally linked with the veneration of some form of fertility or healing goddess. Duck imagery associated with the worship of the goddess Sequana was found at an Iron Age shrine, later a Roman temple, at a springhead in the LoireValley, for example.

Moving into the Iron Age, in addition to our work at the spring, we have been able to carry out a basic survey of the hillfort itself. Vespasian’s Camp’s univallate enclosure is believed to have been constructed in c.500 BC, with little or no evidence of later Iron Age use previously known. After inspecting badger sets, molehills and tree throws along the bank and ditch of the western rampart, however, our team found a pottery assemblage pushing the occupation of the hillfort into the late Iron Age, close to the time of the Roman conquest. According to Wessex Archaeology’s Lorraine Mepham, some of this pottery might have come from over 50 miles away, suggesting that the Camp was an important centre for trade and the movement of people at this time.

The discovery of a likely Romano-British lead curse tablet in the spring, unrolled but found not to have writing in it – something not uncommon in the late Roman period – adds to our sense that this site continued to be seen as a place for depositing ritual items for many generations. Roman finds at Blick Mead have been very limited, perhaps suggesting that by this point the spring had become a private shrine, possibly associated with a Roman villa recently identified just across the A303. Completing this picture, a 5^th-century Anglo Saxon disc brooch (from the spring line at the foot of the hillfort), and Medieval wooden staves found in the main spring, connect the site to the earliest Anglo Saxon settlements in Amesbury, and the later Amesbury Abbey periods. Clearly this was a special place for the long durée.

Time after time
Before our work, there was no known evidence for the Camp and its surrounds playing a significant part on Salisbury Plain in any period. Yet now our spectacular results have led an English Heritage team to describe the site as ‘potentially one of the pivotal places in the history of the Stonehenge landscape.’ Thanks to the contributions of Open University students, increasingly large numbers of Amesbury residents, and colleagues from other companies and institutions, we have started to reveal a much more significant story of the Camp’s place in the landscape, and of Blick Mead, which may have been the focus for ritual practices over 9 millennia.

This could potentially provide the narrative between Stonehenge’s hitherto missing Mesolithic context and Stonehenge itself, as all the other archaeological research in the area so far has not identified a significant pre-Neolithic presence. Could this place be the cradle of Stonehenge – the reason why it is where it is?

Source: Open University tutor David Jacques has directed excavations at Vespasian’s Camp since 2005. Site Supervisor Tom Phillips, is a Project Officer for Oxford Archaeology East, and Site Supervisor Tom Lyons is a field archaeologist, formerly of Oxford Archaeology East.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Sir Edward and Lady Antrobus for allowing us to work on their property, as well as the over 100 students from the OU, all the Amesbury residents who helped to find such an exciting new story about their town, and Amesbury Town Council for supporting our work. Without these people a really important part of Amesbury’s and Stonehenge’s history would never have been found and there would be no ‘Brown Badge for Amesbury’s Historic status’, as awarded in 2011, or new museum, for which the land was bought this year.

A 14ha excavation by Cambridge Archaeological Unit has revealed Roman activity spanning four centuries, as well as archaeological features stretching back to the Middle Bronze Age (c.1500 BC), suggesting that the rolling green farmland northwest of Cambridge was once crowded with bustling Roman settlements and industry.

CAU’s ‘Roman Street Party’ on 23 March – a free event held as part of the University of Cambridge’s Science Festival – offered members of the public the opportunity to see the finds for themselves.

As well as site tours, CAU had recreated a Roman street scene with the help of the Roman Military Research Society to give hands-on insights into domestic life, including a working Roman kitchen and a cobbler to demonstrate trade and production. Visitors could also take part in Roman games and religious activities and examine some of the artefacts unearthed during the investigation.

’446 people came through the gates – a large number considering the snow and the fact that there was no parking within a 15 minute walk,’ said CAU’s Hayley Roberts, who managed outreach for the project. ‘At several points during site tours people were give the opportunity to turn back to our heated marquee, but the thirst to see more remained strong. The fact that so many people braved the elements demonstrates the strong appeal of archaeology and the potential that it has to allow developers to engage with local residents.’

Cambridge Archaeological Unit has investigated 14ha outside the city, revealing Roman activity spanning four centuries, as well as archaeological features stretching back to the Middle Bronze Age (c.1500 BC). Zig-zag ditches thought to represent practice trenches from the Second World War also hint at more recent activity on the site.

Working ahead of the University of Cambridge’s £1bn North West Cambridge Development, which will house new homes, community facilities, and research space, the unit have been excavating the site since last October.

‘This incredible density of activity is much more extensive than had been previously thought,’ said CAU’s Christopher Evans. ‘There are three separate Roman settlements, linked with a complex network of roads and trackways, and inhabited semi-continuously from the 1^st-4^th century AD.’

One of these settlements comprised an early Roman farmstead with corn dryers, but activity was particularly intense in the late Roman period, with large-scale ironworking, Chris said.

‘We have recovered about 200-300kg of slag from iron-smithing so far,’ he said. ‘While these settlements, made up of timber buildings, were not high status by any means, this was clearly a very vibrant place. It would have been an optimum location, where they could live on the gravel surfaces and farm the more fertile clay.’

The gravel ridge had not just been attractive to Roman settlers, however. Four ring-ditches containing cremations and three domestic enclosures bear witness to the Middle Bronze Age colonists who first inhabited the area in c.1500 BC.

‘This is the other exciting aspect of the site, said Chris. ‘It is the first time this area has been looked at in any detail, creating a brilliant opportunity to investigate when the ridge was first colonised. Interestingly, we have not seen any field systems from this period – while the pollen results are not yet in, I wonder if we are going to find that the first occupation was seasonal, or more pastoral than agricultural in focus.’

Traces of the settlers themselves have been found in the site’s extensive cemeteries, with six distinct burial areas identified to-date, two from the Bronze Age and four Roman.

‘The Roman cemeteries are mostly a mixture of inhumations and cremations, generally small, family-sized plots with an average of 10 burials, though there is one purely inhumation cemetery which has 25,’ said Chris. ‘The final phase of the project will see us increase the excavated area to 18ha, and we are very excited about what else we might learn from this remarkable site.’

This article was published in CA 278

Ipplepen is a large scale dig where geophysical surveys have uncovered evidence of an extensive settlement including roundhouses, quarry pits and track ways. Previous excavation work revealed the remains of a round house, a type of house lived in by native Britons during the Iron Age, as well as Iron Age and Roman pottery.

The dig is funded by the University of Exeter, Portable Antiquities, British Museum and Devon County Council.

Participants are invited to take part for a minimum of 2 weeks. The cost per week is £200 (excluding accommodation and food). The working week will be 9am-5pm, Sunday to Friday. Past fieldwork experience is not essential, but participants should be at least 18 years old.

Participants will receive a full programme of excavation and archaeological recording training. This would include archaeological excavation, planning and section drawing, taking a level, soil sampling, photography and completion of written site records.

Accommodation is an additional cost, but there are plenty of opportunities to find somewhere to stay in the local area.

See the blog from 2012 excavations for more information http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/diggingromandevon/

Amber amulet in the shape of a gladiator’s helmet. Amber was an expensive imported material and was thought to have magical powers. The Roman author Pliny describes how amber amulets could protect children from illness and the symbolism of the gladiator may also be protective
Image: MOLA

A tiny amber amulet shaped like a gladiator’s helmet has been discovered in the Walbrook area by Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).

Measuring just over 1cm across, the object was found amongst the remains of a demolished Roman building, together with large amounts of pottery and animal bone. It is hoped that analysis of these will narrow down a possible date for the artefact.

Its distinctive visor and high crest marks it out as depicting part of the equipment of a murmillo, who wore a large enclosing helmet with a grille covering the face. Armed with a short sword or gladius and a rectangular shield called a scutum, he was normally paired against a thraex (Thracian).

‘Gladiators were Roman superstars,’ said MOLA’s Angela Wardle. ‘We know of many souvenir objects depicting them, from glass cups bearing their names to lamps shaped like helmets. Amber was an expensive, rare material, however, so this is more likely to be some kind of talisman. There is a small hole through the top of the helmet’s crest which shows signs of wear, suggesting it was strung on a cord or fine wire – perhaps as a pendant or charm bracelet.’

Writing in his Natural History, in the 1^st century AD, Pliny describes a range of benefits associated with amber, including healing, boosting fertility, and protecting children from illness.

‘The big question is who would have worn it,’ Angela said. ‘It’s a very delicate object, so perhaps it belonged to a woman or a child. There is some tradition of amber talismans being worn by babies.’

This article was published in CA 274

MOLA archaeologists dismantling the 1962 reconstruction of the Mithraeum.
Image: MOLA

Britain’s most-moved Roman site, the Temple of Mithras in London, is one step closer to returning to its original location after recent work by Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA). Since it was uncovered in the 1950s the third-century temple has been completely dismantled, shifted 90m, rebuilt, taken apart again, and is currently in storage in Bedfordshire awaiting a final journey back to London where it will be reunited with its recently rediscovered original foundations.

The Mithraeum’s changing fortunes have been driven by the ever-evolving urban landscape of modern London. It was originally excavated in 1954 by WF Grimes, Director of the Roman and Medieval London Excavation Council, ahead of planned construction work. The building could not be preserved in situ so it was dismantled, placed in storage for eight years – during which much of the original stone and all its columns went missing – and finally reconstructed in a more convenient location, patched together from Roman, Medieval and modern materials. Now, with more development planned, MOLA have returned to the site and recent investigations have uncovered substantial remains of original masonry, previously thought to have been destroyed in the 1950s.

Mithraic masonry: MOLA’s Ian Blair cleans the deeper south-aisle wall foundation at the temple’s original location.

‘We thought there would be nothing left of the original temple but in fact we found the north sleeper wall which would have separated the nave from the north aisle,’ MOLA archaeologist Sadie Watson said. ‘Further evaluation revealed the south aisle wall foundation and a parallel external foundation surviving below the huge concrete foundations laid in the 1950s.’

‘Most recently we uncovered the narthex walls to the east and possible ancillary buildings which might have been antechambers for changing clothes or washing,’ she added. ‘There is a possible drain running under them, though this is not certain at this stage.’

The reconstructed temple was given protected status in 2007 under the condition that it should eventually be dismantled and restored in a better state. Now MOLA have taken the building apart once more, carefully recording and storing its material while new buildings are built around its foundations. A reconstructed reconstruction will be incorporated into these by 2015, which will then be open to the public along with displays about Roman London, Romano-British religion and the turbulent story of the temple itself.

This article was published in CA 266

Located beside the Walbrook River, waterlogged conditions have allowed the rare survival of timber building platforms and leather objects (including over 100 shoes), as well as wooden writing tablets and the largest collection of ‘fist and phallus’ amulets ever found on a single site.

With just 6 weeks to go until the end of the project, this site clearly has so much to tell us about life in Roman London. Analysis of the thousands of finds is already underway and we will be bringing you the full story in a future issue of CA - but in the meantime, here are some pictures of some of the star finds, and watch out for our report on a mysterious leather panel decorated with mythical scenes, which you’ll find in the news section of CA 279.

The excavation has also revealed new pieces of London’s Mithraeum – as we reported in CA 266.

To read more about the amber gladiator amulet, see our article from CA 274.

The horrifying human cost of the Great Irish Famine is well known, but what archaeological traces has it left? Recent research at Queen’s University Belfast by Jonny Geber has revealed the realities of life for a community struck down during the crisis, and how a misdiagnosis may have added to the suffering.

The Kilkenny Union Workhouse symbolised the dawn of a new era of poor relief in Ireland. Founded in the wake of the 1832 Poor Law Act, which introduced workhouses to the country, the custom-built facility was one of the largest in Ireland and designed to house some 1,300 inmates. Within its walls the destitute poor received sustenance and shelter in return for strenuous physical labour and unquestioning obedience to a strict regime. More stick than carrot, the workhouse system was a shining beacon for the Victorian belief in inspiring the poor to better themselves by making the alternative a brutal and degrading existence.

Evaluation work at the Kilkenny workhouse site in 2005 by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil of Kilkenny Archaeology unexpectedly revealed the remains of numerous inmates who never left the institution. The discovery of large quantities of skeletal material was a shock as the workhouse did not lie on consecrated ground. Excavation followed in 2006, undertaken by Brenda O’Meara of Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, and revealed 63 mass burials, the largest number ever to be unearthed within Ireland. These graves proved to hold the remains of at least 970 individuals. Archive research revealed that these forgotten relics of a tragedy were cut over a 43-month period in the mid 1800s. They testify to the devastating impact of a national catastrophe on a vulnerable community.   

The harsh realities of life in Ireland during the first half of the 19^th century are powerfully evoked in the words of one French observer, Gustave de Beaumont. In 1835 he was moved to write that: ‘I have seen the Indian in his forests, and the Negro in his chains, and thought, as I contemplated their pitiable condition, that I saw the very extreme of human wretchedness; but I did not then know the condition of unfortunate Ireland … In all countries, more or less, paupers may be discovered; but an entire nation of paupers is what was never seen until it was shown in Ireland.’ Another contemporary commentator described the poor populating the outskirts of the town of Callan, within County Kilkenny, as ‘either in a state of actual starvation, or barely keeping body and soul together.’

A key weapon in the struggle to keep body and soul entwined had first reached Ireland in the late 16^th century. Initially grown for the amusement of the gentry, by the 19^th century the potato had become an essential foodstuff. Offering a ready source of vitamin C and calories, combining potatoes with the vitamin A and D and proteins in milk provided a cheap, balanced diet that served as a life support for Ireland’s poor. In the run up to the famine average daily potato intake by an adult is estimated to have been around 12-14lb. Of that, the majority was from a single variety, which thrived in damp, low-nutrient soils: the ‘Irish Lumper’. The result was that by the 1840s, so many with so little were dependent on a single variety of a single foodstuff. The stage was set for a catastrophe.    

An Gorta Mór
‘The Great Hunger’, sometimes referred to as the ‘potato famine’, is still a politically charged subject. For many it symbolises a defining moment in the birth of modern Ireland. The arrival of potato blight, or Phytophthora infestans, in August 1845 wrought lasting change on the country. Devastating crops for seven years, by the time the famine lifted in 1852 a million people were dead, and at least a million more had escaped by emigrating. Combined, this amounted to the loss of over a quarter of the Irish population, which has yet to return to its pre-famine levels.

Many, both during and since the famine, felt that the behaviour of the British government helped deepen the crisis. Following the 1801 Acts of Union, Ireland had been constitutionally part of the United Kingdom. Struggling to believe that such a catastrophe would have been tolerated in Yorkshire or Lancashire, John Mitchel, an outspoken critic of England’s actions during the famine wrote in 1861 ‘The Almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the Famine.’    

The impact of potato blight on life in the Kilkenny Workhouse was immediate and soon threatened to be overwhelming. Faced with the abrupt loss of their food supply, the threat of starvation made even the harsh conditions in the workhouse seem appealing to the poor. Many of those living in rural areas hit by the famine migrated towards towns, and Kilkenny’s numbers swelled as labourers from its agricultural hinterland to the west streamed into the city. By July 1847 the number of Kilkenny Workhouse inmates had breached the theoretical maximum of 1,300 and climbed to 2,340. By 1851 the number had rocketed to 4,357, well over three times the institution’s supposed capacity.

Chronically overcrowded, infectious diseases, such as typhus, cholera, and tuberculosis, ran rampant. The workhouse authorities sought to ease the extraordinary pressure on space brought on by the famine by constructing sheds in the grounds and renting premises of dubious suitability for human habitation elsewhere in the city. But as numbers rose and conditions worsened, problems stemming from the absence of a feature that had once been deemed irrelevant to the smooth operation of a workhouse became increasingly acute: a cemetery.

In the end it was Typhus that decided the issue. Striking in 1847, the fever exacted a terrible toll on the weakened workhouse community. Coinciding with the banning of pauper burials at the local cemeteries of St Patrick’s and St Maul’s, the workhouse authorities had no choice other than to look within their own walls. A similar move in the years prior to the famine had earned the institution a stinging rebuke from the Poor Law Commissioners. Now there was no other option and despite local opposition to what was deemed an unsanitary solution, mass graves began to be dug in the north-eastern corner of the site. Comparing the numbers in each grave with the mortality rate recorded in the surviving workhouse minute books suggests that each mass burial held approximately a week’s worth of the dead.

Stack them high
Despite the desperate circumstances driving the burials and the extreme poverty of those interred, the mass graves did not take the form of bodies merely dumped in pits. The importance of dignity in death was keenly felt in 19^th century Ireland, with the traditional Irish wake forming an essential custom for rich and poor alike. There are also numerous accounts of families in even the direst financial circumstances attempting to scrape together enough pennies to throw a respectable funeral. This need is reflected in the burial provisions made at Kilkenny, where the deceased were wrapped in a shroud and buried in simple pine coffins. These were then stacked one on top of the other in the burial pit.

Hints of the economic strain brought on by this determination to ensure that inmates were interred with dignity are apparent in the 10 occasions where two individuals were crammed into one coffin. In most cases such burials took the form of an adult with an infant placed between their legs. In one instance, though, a baby was positioned resting on the crook of an adult female’s right arm. In another, two children aged between 3 and 4 years old were squeezed side by side into a single adult coffin.The high numbers of young people among the dead may also have been influenced by workhouse admission procedures. Normally only complete families – which were then broken up and separated into strict single-sex accommodation, orphaned children and the infirm were accepted. The presence of males and females in the same mass graves shows that such segregation did not outlast life, and that the sexes were finally reunited in death.

The severed bones from four amputations were found among the dead. In two cases it was just the limb that had been deposited, but in the other two cases it was clear that the amputees had not survived the procedure and their bodies joined those in the mass graves. While this was a common enough outcome to an amputation in the mid 19^th century, there are clear signs of a medical failure on a far wider scale among the Kilkenny dead.

In 1848 Joseph Lalor, one of the Kilkenny Workhouse physicians published an article in the Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science describing an epidemic of what he diagnosed as ‘gastric fever’ (typhoid fever) at the institution. Lalor noted the emergence of a new symptom that he called a ‘purpuric eruption’ in 1845, the first year of the famine. These markings were essentially spots found on the chest, groin, back of the neck, arms and legs. By September 1846 such symptoms had become frequent. Lalor’s description of his ministrations paints a potent picture of life for those struck down with the illness:

Diluent drinks, and the abstraction of solid food, and of all external or internal irritants, formed the chief part of the general treatment… Inflammatory complications were most safely and successfully treated by mercury, with opium and blisters; and the apparent analogy between this disease and scurvy should not deter us, in such complications, from the use of this medicine, which acted favourably here.

Despite Lalor’s confidence in his diagnosis, however, study of the mass grave material suggests that he was too hasty in writing off scurvy as a possible cause. Indeed, if these skeletons are any guide the disease seems to have been endemic among his patients. Of the 970 individuals found in the mass burials, 499 display patterns of damage to their bones that suggest they were suffering from advanced scurvy. Tell-tale traces include an excessive concentration of tiny holes at the bones around the temple, and around the teeth sockets and palate. Resembling the aftermath of a woodworm infestation, this damage was wrought by stress from the chewing muscles onto defective blood vessels. It resulted in haemorrhage and the bleeding gums the disease inflicts.

In a way skeletal traces of scurvy reflect a paradox, as they can only form once vitamin C has been re-introduced to a diet. This suggests that these individuals were suffering from extreme scurvy prior to entering the workhouse, and that they received some vitamin C from the institution food rations, probably in the form of vegetables and milk. Evidently they were not able to regain their strength before succumbing to death from infectious disease. This fits with famine folklore telling of workhouses being perceived as ‘death houses’ that, once entered, you were unlikely to leave alive.

 This is an extract, but you can read the full feature in CA 278. 

Tumbled walls are a staple of a countryside ramble, but just how old are they? Recent research has suggested that many of the Lake District’s fallen walls were built far earlier than anyone suspected. They are providing a new insight into how the uplands were tamed.

A scatter of loose Roman coins at a redevelopment site in Bath led to the discovery of a massive Roman hoard. Containing 17,500 coins, x-raying the cache proved it comprised of multiple money bags laid down over a period of 30 or more years. We investigate what this means for our understanding of Roman hoarding.

Peering into a services trench in Aylesbury provided the first glimpse of a previously unknown hillfort. Later excavations revealed a remarkable group of Iron Age burials including both humans and animals.

Free inside this issue, for those of you who live in the UK, is our annual Digs Guide. The indispensable guide to this summer’s excavations, it is crammed with opportunities to get involved with teasing out the past. For those of you enjoying the magazine further afield an electronic version of the guide can be downloaded from here.

Finally, a very big thank you to everyone who came to the 2013 Current Archaeology conference. You can find out what we have been up to in the magazine, and read a few words from our award winners. Congratulations to them all!

FEATURES

THE KILKENNY WORKHOUSE BURIALS

An archaeology of the Irish Potato Famine

Excavations at a previously-unknown workhouse cemetery have uncovered 63 mass graves – the most ever found in Ireland – and shed new light on the human cost of Ireland’s Great Hunger.

TAMING THE LAKE DISTRICT

Cairns, fields, and cultivation

Often overlooked or mistaken for modern features, the Lake District’s wealth of prehistoric field boundaries reveal the history of Cumbrian agriculture.

THE BEAU STREET HOARD, BATH

An unusual Roman cache from an unusual Roman town

What does the discovery of over 17,500 3^rd century coins, stored in a series of leather bags, add to our understanding of how Roman hoards accumulated?

DISCOVERING AYLESBURY’S HILLFORT

Defensive ditches and ritual Iron Age burials

Excavations within a previously-unknown hillfort have revealed the remains of a woman and four children, laid to rest in the 4^th century BC surrounded by a mass of animal bones.

NEWS

Chester’s lost ditch research; Cambridge’s Roman development; Saxons in Somerset?; Grave discoveries in London; Hartlepool: on the button; Welsh winter wonderland; Kendall’s man of mystery; Practical archaeology.

REGULARS

Conference
A round-up of what went on at Current Archaeology Live! 2013

Reviews
Northumbria: the lost kingdom; The story of Roman Bath; A history of death and burial in Northamptonshire

Sherds
Chris Catling’s irreverent take on heritage issues.

Mick’s Dig Diary        
Mick Aston maps out the importance of local cartography to community archaeology projects

Odd Socs
The Guild of One-Name Studies

Every other month we will be printing Mick’s Dig Diary, a new column by Prof Aston exploring the trials and triumphs of local archaeology projects.

Beginning with his current research at Winscombe, Somerset, Mick’s diary can be found in even-numbered issues of CA from #274 onwards.

Don’t miss the latest instalment in CA 278 – on sale this Friday!

If you can’t wait until then, however, the first two entries can be found on the CA website:

An unexpected project

A green and pleasant parish

You can also click here to read our exclusive interview with Mick, originally published in CA 271.

And for more information on all things Time Team, click here.

Time Team is the longest running history/archaeology strand in television history. Although often criticised over its lifetime, this is, by any reckoning, a remarkable achievement. On 20^th October 2012 Channel 4 announced that the 20^th series of Time Team, to be transmitted in 2013, would be its last. As an era in television archaeology comes to an end, what does Time Team tell us about the relationship between archaeology and the media and where do we go from here?

I was lucky enough to work on Time Team for a decade, first as an archaeologist, then an assistant producer, and finally as the development producer for the programme in its last few years. My role principally involved identifying and setting up potential sites for the three-day excavations and working with the documentaries team, with whom the main series shared an open plan office. The job was challenging, exciting and, most of all, fun. I worked with a family of dedicated professionals who cared about the programme and I was also lucky enough to develop strong working relationships with archaeologists across the UK. Time Team was a joint effort between the media and the archaeological world; this relationship became crucial to the programme’s longevity.

Initially commissioned by the education department at Channel 4, Time Team formed part of the broadcasters public service remit. The concept; an archaeological question addressed by an expert team in three days, was original and proved popular. Audiences were entertained by the genuine camaraderie of the team and found the idea of finding the past in their own back gardens appealing. Ratings success followed, seeing the Time Team brand extend into documentaries, live programmes and the more controversial Big Digs.

Time Team was a challenging programme to produce. Combining a professional piece of archaeological work with the complexities of a television production relied on a unique understanding between an experienced field team and a sizeable television crew. Over time directors and research teams became familiar with the archaeological process allowing a variety of sites to be investigated and their narratives given structure through the three-day format. This is the heart of why Time Team delivered so much for so long to both television audiences and archaeological colleagues.

The origin of series

Time Team’s origins and its first few series took place in a media landscape very different to that of today. The programme was allowed several series to find its feet and address teething problems such as the necessity for post-excavation reporting. This particular issue was addressed when Mick Aston took the Commissioning Editor to task about the absence of funding for the processes necessary after excavation concluded. Despite initial bafflement from the Channel as to why they should pay for something that didn’t appear on screen, an understanding was reached.

Over 20 years Time Team became an efficient archaeological unit with the ability to bring experts and technology to many sites that would otherwise not have been investigated. English Heritage, Cadw and other major heritage agencies saw the benefit to be gained from engaging with the team. Eventually this mutual understanding led to work at high-profile protected sites, such as Westminster Abbey and BuckinghamPalace. By now Time Team had tapped into a national obsession with the past; broadcasters took note. Television schedules saw every conceivable variation on the ‘archaeology as it happens’ theme. Time Flyers, Two Men in a Trench and Extreme Archaeology all had a go at replicating the formula with little success. For better or worse Time Team had become the de facto public definition of what archaeologists actually did.

As Time Team became part of the television establishment the media landscape was changing fast. Multiple new channels and the rise of the internet began an ongoing fragmentation of audiences that led to slowly declining viewing figures.  Traditional economic models for television production were also being challenged and broadcasters began to rethink long established business strategies.

In 2010 Time Team became a casualty of change. In an attempt to ‘refresh the brand’ the broadcaster tweaked the format resulting in the departure of team leader Mick Aston and the breakdown of what had made the programme such a success. Relationships became strained, the production process and schedule became more difficult to manage; the end was inevitable. However, Time Team had already achieved a huge amount. Public awareness of archaeological science and process had been raised significantly. Genuine original research had been conducted all over the country and, undoubtedly, many people had been inspired to take up the subject at an amateur or professional level as a result of the adventures of Tony, Mick, Phil and the team.

So where does the departure of Time Team from our screens leave archaeology as a subject for television? No doubt there are production companies developing the new ‘Time Team’ as I write this. They will undoubtedly encounter a problem or two. Time Team took several years to develop an essential understanding between two very different worlds; archaeology and television media. This understanding was at the core of what made many of Time Team’s more ambitious projects possible.

It is certainly the case that archaeological narratives can be challenging to translate into stories for a lay audience, but where Time Team succeeded was in allowing the archaeology to speak for itself and the archaeologists themselves to be our guides. Unfortunately, this approach appears to be an exception rather than a rule in television. Quite understandably broadcasters and television production companies are not concerned with the generally slow paced minutiae of archaeology. It is vital that archaeologists engage with broadcasters, seeking new ways to communicate their discipline and, equally so, that broadcasters respect the integrity of archaeology as a subject. Open communication is key.

It may be a cliché to say so, but archaeology needs public support if it is to survive, especially in a struggling economy. Television is a powerful communication medium harnessed by Time Team to great effect. Technical terms like ‘geophysics’ became widely used and understood as a result of Time Team’s work. It is this focus on process that is, perhaps, the programme’s greatest legacy. If those of us in the archaeological world do not build on the foundations that Time Team has laid then our profession will once again be depicted on our screens as an Indiana Jones-style search for priceless treasure in exotic locales. None of us want that… do we?

This article was published in CA 274. For more on the triumphs and trials of Time Team, see our feature: Time Team – the rise and fall of a television phenomenon

In CA 274, Mick explained how his local research project examining the origins of Winscombe in Somerset got off the ground. Now he gives us an overview of the area itself, and how he proposed to tackle its archaeology. 

Winscombe is a parish in the north of Somerset, lying towards the western end of the limestone hills of Mendip. The Medieval parish is a strange shape – composed of two triangles, the northern one (the Sandford area) symmetrically balanced on the pinnacle of the southern triangle (Winscombe), looking like a butterfly lying on its side. As Mendip runs westwards towards the coast, it splits at the eastern end of the parish, with one arm forming the southern boundary and the other arm creating the boundary between Winscombe and Sandford, with a gap where the two halves of the parish join. At its western end, the parish runs up to the M5 motorway where it cuts through the end of Mendip, just south of the Weston-super-Mare junction.

Travellers stationary in summer traffic jams can look east up the Winscombe valley towards Dolebury Warren hillfort on the higher part of Mendip. This end of Winscombe is still farmland, mostly worked from the appropriately named hamlet of Barton – or ‘barley tun’ (meaning settlement). At the eastern edge of Winscombe, the A38 makes its way from Bristol southwards towards Bridgwater. This part of the parish is much more built-up and there are pockets of housing estates as well as a small centre with local shops. The modern 1:25000 Ordnance Survey map names this built-up area as Winscombe, but in fact it grew out of the hamlet of Woodborough. Winscombe itself is another small village clustered around the church, which sits prominently on the side of Mendip just above the 60m contour line. On the other side of the A38 lies another hamlet – that of Sidcot, where the famous Quaker Meeting House and School are based.

Aerial picture of Sandford, looking south, with Sandford quarry at the top of the picture and the ciderworks at the bottom

Moving through the gap in Mendip, past a large, defunct limestone quarry, you arrive in Sandford, the village that lies at the northern part of the parish. Historically this has always been considered separately, and was at one time a chapelry of Winscombe. The village of Sandford, now mostly modern housing, is strung out along the road which heads from the traffic lights at Churchill on the A38 (the north-east corner of the parish) towards Banwell and finally Weston-super-Mare on the coast. North of this road there is still farmland on an area of slightly raised land, much of which is now given over to orchards supplying apples for the nationally known and quaffed Thatchers Cider. The ciderworks itself lies in the village. Beyond this area the land drops down onto the watery pastures of the north Somerset levels, cut through by ‘rhynes’, the local dialect word for the drainage ditches that criss-cross the lowland.

Unravelling a landscape

So how best to investigate this landscape? Our experiences at Shapwick (see CA 272) gave us a number of pointers about the best way to proceed. We decided that test-pits in the settlements would provide us with the pottery needed to date the various phases of development. Even so, the dispersed settlement pattern at Winscombe brought far more problems than the single village of Shapwick – I have noted at least 20 hamlets in the Winscombe documents, all of which need a representative coverage of test-pits. Unlike Shapwick, for the present we have no plans to undertake a comprehensive fieldwalking exercise. This is partly because we are in a more pastoral landscape with fewer ploughed fields, and partly because of the vast quantity of material this produced at Shapwick. We are simply not in a position to analyse and process finds on that scale.

A test-pit in Sandford village, with the Railway Inn in the background

For similar reasons, large-scale excavations have been ruled out for now. We might, however, undertake some small trenches across field boundaries as this produced particularly useful and revealing results at Shapwick. More manageable, however, is the survey of buildings, which represents the first layer of archaeology. The Somerset Vernacular Buildings Research Group, who worked at Shapwick, readily agreed to undertake this in a programme extending over a couple of years. We have also called upon other expertise: James Bond, a very experienced surveyor and interpreter of earthworks, has surveyed some of the areas of intriguing lumps and bumps; while John Gater and Jimmy Adcock have conducted geophysical surveys over various parts of the parish, mainly using magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar.

The project has very little funding, and so most of the work is being tackled by volunteers. We are undertaking some aspects of the work ourselves with help from others: Teresa is learning about the pottery in consultation with local pottery experts in the south-west such as John Allan and David Dawson, and Phil Knibb is looking into the clay pipes over discussions with Marek Lewcun. We have a small fund (managed by Nick Corcos) that I have built up over many years, mainly on the back of the lectures I gave to societies, museums, and organisations about Time Team, Shapwick, and other topics. The donations from these events will eventually run out, of course, but at present they enable us to pay for expertise and advice where necessary, as well as other expenses such as radiocarbon dating.

A finds surgery in Winscombe Community Centre, where items found in people’s gardens are identified, photographed, and catalogued.

We have received a small grant from the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) towards the cost of equipment and materials. Mick was told we could apply for Heritage Lottery money – indeed, he was encouraged to do so by the Heritage Lottery Fund in Exeter. In the event, we were then advised that we would be ineligible because work had already started. I also wonder if this is because it is a research project led by myself, Teresa, Maria and others, and therefore not truly generated by the local community itself. If this is an unfavourable factor there is a certain irony to it. A project with little direction or expertise, but which is entirely run by locals probably would have attracted funds, although the quality of the research and indeed any published results might end up being far less authoritative.

As in most parishes in England, work of one form or another had already taken place in Winscombe, and it was going to be important to round up as much information as possible on any earlier finds or excavations that had taken place. One of the methods we employed to do this was to hold surgeries in the village hall to which locals could bring pottery and other finds from their gardens. This would supplement the pottery distribution picture we would be creating through test-pitting and our own garden collection policy.

So, now that we have covered the genesis of the project and the area it would explore, it is time to look at how our research has progressed and evolved.

This article was published in issue 276 of Current Archaeology.

Click here to read our exclusive interview with Mick Aston - published in CA 271

In his new bi-monthly column, Mick Aston guides us through the trials and triumphs of local archaeology. He starts by recalling the genesis of his current research project at Winscombe, Somerset.

When I moved to Winscombe parish in 1984 there were no thoughts in my mind of conducting a project there: indeed, I had taken a conscious decision not to get involved in any local activities. My brief at Bristol University was to cover the provision of archaeological extra-mural courses in the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire. As I was responsible for developing and running a large programme of lectures, courses, and day schools at Bristol, I did not think I would have time for any local archaeological research. The Time Team television programmes for Channel 4 and the big project on village development at Shapwick (CA 272) in central Somerset both lay some way in the future.

It was only in the mid 1990s that I began to walk around Winscombe and notice that its landscape appeared to have a rather different history and development to that of Shapwick. I was still not inclined to get involved locally, though I did join the Winscombe and Sandford Local History and Archaeological Society, founded in 1990 by John Gower, Maria Forbes, and others. I even said at one of the meetings that I could not see how the Medieval field system had operated in Winscombe: there were no obvious common strip fields or evidence of ridge-and-furrow cultivation. The settlement pattern was also clearly different to Shapwick.

In 1994 a small field in the middle of my home village of Sandford was to be developed for housing and so I went and had a look. In the field were two pillars of what I assumed was a concrete – possibly Second World War – structure. But when I got close I could see they were carved stone: two sides of a fireplace, with the lintel missing. I contacted Vince Russett, the county archaeologist for North Somerset, and we put together a team of local people and students from Bristol. Alongside Paula Gardiner, a research student and subsequently a lecturer at Bristol, we spent our Sundays from January to May 1995 conducting the complete excavation of a small post-Medieval cottage with a reused Tudor fireplace. We gave several lectures in Sandford village hall, and hundreds of local villagers visited the site during an open day. There was clearly an appetite for local archaeology!

The cottage housing the Tudor fireplace

The landscape archaeology draws Mick in
Chris Gerrard and I wrote the Society for Medieval Archaeology volume on Shapwick after I retired from Bristol in 2004, following my brain haemorrhage in 2003. When it was published in 2007, Teresa Hall [Mick’s partner] and I began to wonder whether we should investigate Winscombe as a local comparison. She had completed an MPhil under Harold Fox in the department of English Local History at Leicester University – where William Hoskins’ influence was so strong. We knew from Maria Forbes, who had done a huge amount of local research, that there was a good series of documents for the parish and an early map.

We settled on an approach that combined landscape history and archaeology. Comparable to the Shapwick methodology, this would investigate settlements, field systems, and buildings to tease out how and when the landscape of the parish evolved to its present appearance. It would cover a long period of time, probably the last 2,000 years or more. But how would we set about it? Maria Forbes mentioned that there were lots of compotus or account rolls and court rolls in the County Record Office at Taunton and in the Diocesan Record Office at Wells. Martin Ecclestone, a former MA Local History student from Bristol, now retired, readily agreed to transcribe and translate a selection of these. Running from the 1270s through to the mid 16th century, we had them digitally photographed and sent on to Martin. Week after week in 2009 and 2010, transcriptions arrived by post from Martin, providing fascinating reading about the Medieval peasants and their activities in the 14th and 15th centuries. These documents amounted to a hugely important guide for the fieldwork.

Perhaps the most important consideration before starting is the ultimate outcome of a project. To my mind this should always be publication (and not just on the internet!). Along the way, the dissemination of new knowledge to the local community is both the privilege and obligation of working in a neighbourhood. I regularly lecture on our findings and the project has a stall at annual community fairs. We are about to become involved in working with the children in the two local primary schools, and are providing information boards for the villages: our first has just gone up in the strategic location of the bar of the Railway Inn in Sandford. The board was put together by one of our testpitters, Nick Bristow, who is a professional graphic artist.

Test-pitting at the Michaelmas Fair last September attracted a lot of interest.

The next question was how we could recruit help from the local community for the test pitting and other field work. For a split nanosecond we had the idea of advertising the project around the village and inviting anyone from the parish’s population of 4,000 to join us. But because of my high media profile, we worried that we might be inundated and unable to organise vast numbers of enthusiastic people with little or no experience. Instead, we decided to start with a small number of locals and graft on extra people as they expressed an interest. In this way, we were able to build a core group initially, and then take on additional volunteers.

This Winscombe project is not then, strictly speaking, a community archaeology project. It was not generated by the community, and is not organised by the parish, though it has very close relations with the parish council and local society. It is a research project looking into the origin and development of the local landscape of Winscombe parish, set within the context of the wider Somerset landscape and linked in to national research themes, including the origins of villages, field systems, and the organisation of early estates. This is local research put into a national context. It is run under my direction, and the participants are local people (with a few outliers from Bristol, Chippenham, and Weston-super-Mare) with a great enthusiasm for learning more about the parish and the methods used to undertake such a study.

So, in the coming months we are off on an adventure to learn about Winscombe over thousands of years; it won’t all be plain sailing, there may well be problems, but stick with us and we hope that you too might be inspired to look at your own parish or village.

This article was published in Current Archaeology issue 274.

Click here to read our exclusive interview with Mick Aston – published in CA 271