Contact Information Archaeologists in South Gloucestershire Council A rc h a e o l o g y is produced by South Gloucestershire Council to keep you in touch Richard Osgood with archaeological news and developments in supported by the Archaeology the region. It appears twice a year and can be Job Title: Archaeology obtained from local libraries and council Promotion Officer Issue 2 November 2001 offices. For any enquires relating to issues raised in this newsletter, ways to promote the re g i o n’s heritage, or just archaeology in elcome to the second Job Duties: As the Job Title suggests! Much general, please contact: A rchaeology newsletter put Inside this issue... of the job involves work with Local schools W and historic groups. Recent months have seen Richard Osgood together by South Gloucestershire Council. The newsletter is intended to a couple of small excavations alongside Archaeology Promotion Officer ◗ Roman Villa Excavations in Horton! page 4-5 further production of a CD-ROM on the South Gloucestershire Council keep people in touch with all the Romans in South Gloucestershire for our Planning, Transportation and Strategic re g i o n’s archaeological issues, be primary schools, and the production of this ◗ Environment Section, they talks, exhibitions, current Acton Court page 6 newsletter. Civic Centre, excavations or finds within the area. High Street, First Excavation: A roundbarrow at West We also hope that the newsletter can Overton in Wiltshire in 1987 - I was delighted Kingswood, be used as a forum for thoughts on with my single find of a Roman Iron nail. SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE a rchaeology and for questions BS15 9TR relating to archaeological matters. Main areas of archaeological Interest: If you want to get in touch, why not I am, primarily, a prehistorian and have Tel 01454 864679 drop a line to Richard Osgood - we’ll published work on warfare in Prehistor y. Email: [email protected] I must confess to gaining an interest in the try to include some of your letters in Roman period (perhaps heretical to many Future issues should include readers’ letters, future issues. The magazine has been prehistorians) having moved to South book reviews and other sections - we want to distributed to all Council offices, Gloucestershire Council and working on sites hear your views! museums and libraries in South of this period. Gloucestershire.
Favourite Site/Monument in South Gloucs: It has to be the site of Tormarton, which had prehistoric burials with combat The Avon Valley Railway wounds (as seen on “Meet the Ancestors”). This was my first experience of archaeology in Based at Bitton Station, volunteers at the Avon Many other events are planned by the AVR the region It had been hoped to include a report on some Valley Railway have lovingly restored several including the intriguingly titled “Santa fieldwork around the English Civil War battle- steam engines, rolling stock and historic sta- Specials” which will be run on the 1st, 2nd, Contact: [email protected], field of Lansdown in this issue, however it has tion buildings to offer a four-mile return train 3rd, 8th, 9th, 15th, 16th, 22nd, 23rd & Tel: 01454 864679 p roved impossible to do so. For various reasons this project has had to be cancelled. ride along the former Mangotsfield to Bath 24th of December 2001. Green Park branch of the old Midland Railway. Much of this journey takes place in beautiful If you’re interested in lending a hand to the countryside, passing many historic elements work of the volunteers of in taking a trip on a within the landscape. steam train, contact the Avon Valley Railway: In the Next Issue of Archaeology R i c h a rd Osgood of South Gloucestershire Council recently visited the AVR on a day when Avon Valley Railway educational visits to the site were being made ◗ Bitton Railway Co. Ltd. An update on the “Romans in South by local schoolchildren. Ann and John Mann Gloucestershire” CD-ROM Bitton Station skillfully imparted stories and histories to Bath Road ◗ enthralled children and took them round the Unlisted historic Structures in South Bitton Gloucestershire. various elements of the station and its trains. Bristol BS30 6HD One of the carriages now holds an excellent Designed by Graphics & Mapping display of elements of archaeology and history South Gloucestershire Council PT&SE 8294 K 0117 932 5538 And Much More ! Tel 01454 863762 that can be found along the route of the www.southglos.gov.uk journey.
Archaeology - Issue 2 November 2001 8 A HALF YEARLY NEWSLETTER PRODUCED BY SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNCIL 1 “Finds Spot” Bailey’s Court Archaeology
The Goddess from Aust-on-Severn Following the Magnetometer surv e y With the trenches being open, Council below the cricket pitch at Bailey’s Court, a rchaeologists David Evans and Richard The Martin Henig (Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford) Bradley Stoke Town Council asked South Osgood were able to provide an archaeological G l o u c e s t e r s h i re Council to undertake training exe rcise for children from the small scale excavations in advance of any neighbouring primary school. This “virtual dig” A century ago, below the cliff where the M49 Although only half the size, 7.5cm, and lacking drainage wok to the pitch. entailed the finding of specially placed Roman now speeds the traveller over the Severn to the striking head-dress of the Aust figurine, objects, and modern finds in stratigraphic Chepstow and South-East Wales, a remarkable the face has he same slit-mouth and eyes, The excavations were limited in their location; sequence to demonstrate several of the d i s c o v e ry was made. It was a originally fitted with glass insets. they had to avoid both the cricket pitch and techniques and site aspects of an d o l l - l i ke figurine, cast in bro n z e , In his case the breasts do not also neighbouring football pitches. As a archaeological dig. The ability of our young 14.6cm in height. The face, with its project - they are pendulous - but consequence, these evaluation trenches volunteers proved to be very high and we can long nose, slit mouth and circular once again the subject is nude. u n c o v e red NOTHING of archaeological expect South Gloucestershire to provide some inset glass eyes (one of which has The Henley Wood figurine has importance! This in itself was interesting - it of the archaeologists of the future! been lost) is primitive and mask-like. her hands clasped in front of her meant that the main villa lies directly below The high head-dress is reminiscent of waist while that from Aust has and confined within the remits of the cricket To follow up on the children’s project work on those of figurines from Spain but the her arms by her side, but a far Square itself. Thus the cricket club should not the Romans, year 4 were visited by members p rominent projecting breasts and more important difference is that find too many problems with their drainage of the Roman Re-enactment group; the Ermine evident nudity of the Aust figurine the former is wearing a typically work. All this provides “negative evidence” in Street Guard. A centurion and legionary from have nothing Iberian about them; the Celtic torc around her neck, a archaeological parlance! the guard told the children all about life in the Spanish seem to have been prudish symbol of authority, worn alike Roman army whilst one of the teachers in Ancient times and later but not by chieftains and by deities. modelled the costume of a Roman lady. the Celts who had a far more robust and open view of women and sex in It is tempting to label both general. For them indeed female images as ‘Venus figurines’ nudity was regarded as powerful because the Roman goddess magic. Nevertheless until re c e n t l y connected with love and procre- the figurine, now in the British ation, who is often portrayed Museum with a copy in Bristol, had unclothed is so familiar to us. no close parallel and continued to be But the subjects of this note are published as an import from Spain, not directly connected with dating from the 3rd Century B.C. Graeco-Roman art and they must even though associated pottery was represent a purely native power late Iron Age or Roman. of this region. Although we will probably never know for certain Re c e n t l y, however, a fairly close what she was called, the only parallel came to light at the Roman local goddess known to us by temple of Henley Wood near Yatton name is Sulis, later equated by in north Somerset, and of course in the Romans with Minerva and our same Bristol Channel Region. given a temple at Bath. Is it This figurine, which must also be assigned to possible that the Aust on Severn figurine the end of the Iron Age, is now in the shows Sulis in her pre-Roman guise when she Woodspring Museum, We s t o n - s u p e r- M a re . was, above all, a goddess of fecundity?
Your Say South Gloucestershire Council welcomes comments on this newsletter and on archaeology matters in general. If you have a suggestion, query, story or find, then let us know!
2 Archaeology - Issue 2 November 2001 7 Acton Court Recent Work in South Pucklechurch History Under the Abbey. It is possible that Gloucestershire Archaeology Microscope it was they who later Acton Court in Iro n laid out the village plan, Acton was opened to Planning permissions are examined by Council The history and Archaeology of the Pucklechurch originally perhaps with the public during a rchaeologists to ascertain the possible is under investigation by the Heritage and one street, but then with w e e kends in Au g u s t implications of any building on the reg i o n’ s Archaeology Research Practice (H.A.R.P.) of the three such elements and and September this archaeology. South Gloucestershire is one of the University of Wales, Lampeter, financed by South its main manor- h o u s e . summer and demand busiest areas of the country in terms of G l o u c e s t e r s h i re Council. This is aimed at And what of the Black for tickets hugely outstripped supply. It is hoped construction; correspondingly there has also been understanding the origins and development of Death? Are the effigies that the house will be opened again in 2002 a fair amount of archaeological evaluation and the community and homing in on features of in the church one monu - and any developments excavation in advance of development. interest and importance. ment to a man and wife will be put into future perished in the scourge? issues of the newsletter. Situated below the Cotswold scarp in the east of The screening of the the council area, Pucklechurch has long been seen But of course we must not forget the history of Channel 4 Te l e v i s i o n as occupying an important position in history. later times and the way the splendid Victorian Series “The Six Wives of There is evidence of activity in Bronze Age times housed and associated cottages dating from the H e n ry VIII” c o i n c i d e d and a large burial mound (tumulus) can be seen medieval period to the Victorian era have with the tours of the on Shortwood Hill. There are Iron Age hillforts in developed over the years. The study has Court and featured the unearthed over forty buildings of importance Venetian Glass Object the hills above the Parish but it is to the Roman building in the episode on period that archaeology has revealed abundant unrecognised until now. And what of the role that Anne Boleyn. The excavations of Acton Court by evidence of activity. Roman roads, coins and other Pucklechurch played in World War II? The present Rob Bell of the Bath Archaeological Tr u s t items have been found in the past, all indicating study hopes to answer all of these questions with ( h t t p : / / w w w. b a t h a rc h a e o l o g y. o rg.uk/) gave a that Pucklechurch was an important site - villas the involvement of the community in their fascinating insight into the site. have been found nearby, could it be that heritage. P u c k l e c h u rch has one also? However, Although perhaps built on the site of a manor Medieval buildings at Bradley Stoke Ian Brown, David Austin, Helen Manley-Jones mentioned in the Domesday Book and visited Pucklechurch is most famous for its later history (H.A.R.P.) by Henry VII, many of and this is being concentrated on in the present the improvements were Some of the most exciting recent finds have been study. u n d e r t a ken between located adjacent to Bradley Stoke Wa y. The c1535 and 1555 by Sir excavations of summer 2001, prior to develop- Nicholas Poyntz, largely ment of some land, have been led for Bristol and for the visit of Henry VIII Region Archaeology Services by Jens Samuels and Events have uncovered substantial Medieval deposits. and Anne Boleyn. The R i c h a rd Osgood, the Arc h a e o l o g y These deposits comprise a series of buildings excavations re v e a l e d , P romotion Officer for South constructed from coursed layers of lias slabs with amongst other elements, Gloucestershire Council will be speaking The Krazer Sundial walls often 1metre in width. These walls seem a large Medieval Moat to the Bristol and Avon Arc h a e o l o g y around the site which was probably filled in the not to have been mortared but were instead Society about his excavations with BBC2’s Mid 16th Century and filled with several elements made-up with soil to fill gaps between stones. “Meet the Ancestors” in “The Dead of from the Medieval parts of the building. The structures lie on a pronounced slope and have had their walls terraced into the underlying To r m a r t o n”. The lecture will be on The excavations of the natural clay. Medieval spur found at Pucklechurch Wednesday 28th November at 19:30 in St Main Court also Matthews Church Hall, Clare Ro a d , provided interesting late Pennant Stone was used for roofing these Fifty years on from the death of Alfred the Great Cotham, Bristol. 16th and 17th Century buildings and several such slabs have been in 899, his dynasty were overlords from Brecon to finds from the fill of located on the site. Judging from the stratified The Council For British Archaeology South Aberdeen; another fifty years on both dynasty and garderobes - complete pottery that has been recovered from the excava- West Group are holding an Au t u m n England had fallen to foreign conquerors. When pots, gambling toke n s tions, an initial date of around the 13th-14th Symposium on the 10th November 2001 Alfred’s grandson Edmund succeeded his brother and a candle stick Centuries has been put forward for the buildings. at Gloucester City Guild Hall. The theme Athelstan in 939, he was a youth of 18 years and Stone carved heads w e re re c o v e red. The for the event is ‘The Land of the Dobunni’ from the moat Some of the building floors were constructed At h e l s t a n’s Kingdom soon collapsed under a rchaeologists also and speakers include Profs Barry Cunliffe, from lias slabs set on end and then packed with invasions of Irish Vikings. uncovered a fascinating find in their work within earth - a not uncommon floor type - whilst others Michael Fulford, Philip Rahtz and David the area which was perhaps the formal gardens of are formed from slabs of pennant stone. One of In the subsequent years to 946, Edmund showed Dumville. Details are available from Lynne Acton Court; an extraordinary polyhedral sun-dial the former floor types also seems to retain the considerable warlike and political skill to begin to Walmsley, 52 Sylvam Road, Pennsylvania, with the initials of the astronomer Nicholas remnants of a Medieval hearth. The finds from reconquer Athelstan’s former kingdom, but in the Exeter, Devon. EX4 6EY or tel. 01392 Krazer of Bavaria carved upon it. The sun-dial is these buildings would appear to indicate that May of that year the Anglo-Saxon chronicle tells 432184 also inscribed with the date 1520 upon it making they are broadly contemporaneous and represent us he was murd e red ‘in his own hall’ in A Study of the South Gloucestershire’s it the earliest garden sun-dial found in England. an impressive, well built, complex from the Pucklechurch in defence of his Steward by a local buildings of historic importance is period. Several buildings seem to be dwellings vagrant called Le o f f, whom he had earlier The objects dating from the being put together and the council held period of the visit of Henry whilst others may have had a different function - banished. He was buried at Glastonbury as perhaps for storage. Initial examinations suggest Edmund ‘the Magnificent’. But where was this two meetings at Kingswood Civic Centre V I I I w e re the height of for participants to assemble exhibition fashion in Tudor England as that one further structure, abutting the main ‘hall’? Was it a palace? Was it a hunting lodge? Is boards with their photographic results. A Sir Nicholas Poyntz was group of buildings, might also be an animal pen. its present siting, behind the Star Inn, correct? further meeting will take place in October courtier and had access to The site represents perhaps the first evidence for It appears that Pucklechurch was a royal centre and the results should be displayed in trading port of Bristol. Medieval settlement in Bradley Stoke and we thus and was appropriated in the tenth century by one exhibitions in South Gloucestershire at the They are the sort of finds of the great organisations involved in the business can now see elements of dwelling in this region start of 2002. one might expect from a from the Bronze and Iron Ages right through to of developing manors and villages: Glastonbury Tudor palace. modern day housing.
6 Archaeology - Issue 2 November 2001 3 Excavations of a Roman Villa in Horton - Interim Findings
magnetometer and Resistivity The Villa In addition to the finds structures, it may be that the site is part of a Survey on a farm in Horton of coins, roof slabs, large farmstead, though it mustn’t be assumed The main feature located a series of linear p o t t e ry and animal that all features are contemporaneous. A of the excavation features. These were presumed to be bones, one lump of lay to the east of The small-scale operations of the South the walls of a building (or at least metalworking clinke r the yard - a finely G l o u c e s t e r s h i re Council excavation re v e a l e d their foundation trenches). With this was recovered. Though constructed wall. much information. The villa building at Horton information and the fact that the too small a quantity to Surviving up to 5 has survived remarkably well and bares farmer has found a lot of Roman enable any dogmatic courses in depth, Complete Roman testament to sympathetic farming practices p o t t e ry (including several pieces Roof Slab statements as to the wall was built over the years. A gap in our understanding of brought up by badgers whilst they possible industrial practices within the f rom square d the region in the Roman period has, partially, dug a set) and several coins, it building, this is nevertheless an interesting blocks of stone been filled. It is interesting to note that the seemed likely that these might be possibility. The magnetometer plot picked up with and orange distribution map of Roman Sites in Aston and Roman remains. large magnetic readings in another part of the Wall Elevation with Foundation mortar and rub- Iles book on the Archaeology of Avon merely Stones and Mortar building which perhaps related to an oven or With the help of local volunteers, ble stone filling. displays a void for South Gloucestershire! It hearth. This could only be determined by a rchaeologists from South The initial process for construction involved the would not be unfair to say, therefore, that the further excavation. G l o u c e s t e r s h i re Council decided to digging of a foundation trench. In this, flat, villa at Horton is probably the best surviving excavate a small portion of this site in thin slabs of stone were laid and mortar added, known Roman wall in the region South Further Features o rder to obtain information to followed by the stone courses of the Gloucestershire Council would like to thank Mr augment the Sites and Monuments foundations and further mortar to fix them in A small, poorly constructed, wall of loose Mastrangelo and all volunteers for their help Record. place. There were three courses of stone lying stone blocks in soil was constructed at a later with the project. on the foundation slabs, this was then phase to the east of the building and perhaps followed by the wall proper. The Foundation represents some type of field wall. There is no Magnetometer Plot at Horton trench appears to have been filled with smaller reason that this feature need not be Roman in The Romans in South stone rubble following wall construction. date as well. Gloucestershire - a CD-ROM Initially, a 5m grid square was marked out, Following archaeological fieldwork in intending to examine some of the interior of To the east of the wall, lying within the area of Conclusions Horton and Bradley Stoke the progress of the possible villa, part of any surviving wall the building were several clearly defined layers the proposed CD-ROM for Primary structure, and a portion of the exterior. It was with obvious archaeological horizons. Beneath The feature that showed up on the Schools is well underway. The work will felt that this would be most suitable to answer a layer of rubble was a layer of flat Roman roof magnetometer plot is indeed a Roman villa; centre around a fictional villa which will the research aims listed above whilst at the slabs. This was initially considered to be a stratigraphically sealed pottery and coins all have large numbers of clickable elements same time causing least disturbance to the site possible floor but closer examination revealed help to show this. The walls are very well built - all of which will be relevant to work under Key Stage II of the National itself, should it prove to be important. that a number lay on end as opposed to flat, f rom squared stone (white lias limestone) Curriculum. The villa will also be put into a and one retained its iron nail. The layer blocks and mortared into place with an orange format whereby it can be printed out and probably therefore represented the collapse of mortar. Their foundations lay in a cut pit which built as a model by the schoolchildren. The Excavation Trench, Horton the roof of the building. The tile layer sealed was filled with rubble following the walls’ The CD-ROM will be accompanied by a 2001 deposits containing Roman pottery and a coin construction. support pack which will contain, amongst of the Emperor Claudius II (c.268-279) which From the find of the coin, the structure Wet conditions and the underlying sticky clay many elements, Roman pottery, coins, gives us a terminus post quem for the appears to have collapsed at some point after maps, and an excavation video. South made excavation of this area difficult. It was building’s demise. the late third or early fourth centuries AD. Gloucestershire Council is very grateful to thus decided to subdivide the area and to leave Pottery from the site can be dated from the Barratt Homes for a grant towards the areas of baulks within the square. A further coin from the interior of the building final output of the product. It is envis- mid Second Century onwards (finds of Samian, appears to be one from the reign of the aged that the CD will be available for the Amphora Storage vessels, Black burnished e m p e ror Constantine I, c310- start of the New Year. Dorset & Oxfordshire Wares being present), Features Revealed: 316, with the Sun God, Sol, and other occupation debris in the form of Cobbled area depicted on the Reverse. b u t c h e red animal bone remains, was also This coin was minted in The work initially revealed a cobbled area, present. the Roman city of Trier presumably a track or yard which was located in Germany. The The fact that samian, amphora and two to the west of the trench, an area assumed to information from the fragments of window glass shave been found lie outside the possible villa structure. This coins thus indicates seems to confer an element of status to this cobbling was not present across the full extend that the building col- building - it was far from being a simple of the square. Adjacent to this layer was one lapsed at some point after structure. Given that badger sets in a distant composed of collapsed building materials, c.270, and probably after part of the field are revealing pottery, and that including Roman roof tiles and several iron nails. c316 AD the magnetometer plot has also revealed other
4 Archaeology - Issue 2 November 2001 5