so, our thinking is thus: the site we excavated this summer started life as a prehistoric enclosure with an internal ditch and external bank. There is no dating evidence for this phase. But then the pesky Romans came along and cut a ditch on the outside of the enclosure, which was also partly cut into the outside face of the bank. They also may have filled in the internal ditch. The material from the external ditch was used to enhance the bank and this partly covered the internal ditch. There was a single piece of Roman pottery form the external ditch, but the profile, complete with ankle-breaker, looks early and military. The external ditch seems to have silted up naturally, but the upper part may have been deliberately filled and the terminal of the ditch included interesting deposits of non-local stone and lead-working waste. This seems to have been ritual deposition and may relate to the use of a high status building in the bottom of the valley. There is also a Roman lead extraction site nearby and it has been suggested that the resident of the high status building may have been in charge of the lead working both there and at Charterhouse, a few miles away. It may be the case that this person was responsible for the deposition of the material in the ditch fills (although this involves high degree of supposition!), as some kind of thank offering to the gods. All of this depends on post-excavation analysis, which may change the nature of things dramatically, but it makes nice story in the meantime.....
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 19:34:25 +0000
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