Archaeology in Marlow www.archaeologyinmarlow.org.uk NEWSLETTER Volume 14 Issue No: 2 April 2015 AiM’s Forthcoming Events Thursday 30th April Roman Brooches a talk by Justine Bailey, arranged by Archaeology in Marlow as a joint event for AiM and Marlow Archaeo- logical Society Roman brooches can be divided into three main groups, bow brooches, plate brooches and penannulars. All these groups are typologically very diverse which makes them relatively good chronological markers; an introduction to the diver- sity of types and their dating will be provided. Most Roman brooches were made of a range of different copper alloys, though both silver and gold were used occasionally for particular types. Most brooches have some form of decoration, and in many cases this was made of other materi- als that were added to the brooches. Commonest are a variety of styles of champlevé enamelling, and tinning. There are good correlations between date of manufacture, the alloy used to make the brooch, and most types of applied decoration. These relationships will be discussed. 8 pm Garden Room, Liston Hall, Chapel Street, Marlow, SL7 1DD Free parking in the adjacent car park after 7 pm £3 members of AIM and MAS, £4 non-members Thursday 21st May Operation Nightingale a talk by Phil Andrews of Wessex Archaeology, Site Direc- tor at Barrow Clump, Salisbury Plain Operation Nightingale is an award-winning project established by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation, and involving Wessex Archaeology. Its aim was to in- vestigate how archaeological excavation could be used to aid the recovery of sol- diers injured in Afghanistan. The project has now concluded after three very suc- cessful seasons on Salisbury Plain. The team of archaeologists and soldiers un- earthed a major sixth-century burial site at Barrow Clump, uncovering approxi- mately 60 burials – including Anglo-Saxon warriors. Artefacts uncovered included a sword, shield bosses, spearheads, brooches, beads and other jewellery, as well as a unique wooden drinking vessel with bronze bands. The Anglo-Saxon graves had been dug into and around a large, still upstanding Early Bronze Age barrow, which itself covered a similarly well-preserved but smaller Beaker burial mound, with Neolithic remains sealed beneath it. Several well preserved Bronze Age cremation burials also survived. 8 pm Garden Room, Liston Hall, Chapel Street, Marlow, SL7 1DD Free parking in the adjacent car park after 7 pm £3 members, £4 non-members 1 AiM’s Events at a Glance Thursday 30th April Thursday 25th June ‘Roman Brooches’ AiM AGM followed by a talk by Dr Justine Bayley, specialist in metal ‘Discovering Prehistoric Landscapes: and glass technology of the Roman and medie- Grims Ditch and HS2’ val periods (a joint event for Archaeology in a talk by Sandy Kidd. Marlow and Marlow Archaeological Society Sandy will be speaking on the mysterious organised by AiM) Grims ditch network and discoveries on 8 pm Garden Room, Liston Hall* the HS2 route not far from Marlow. £3.00 AiM and MAS members, £4.00 non- Thousands of ancient relics could be un- members earthed during HS2’s construction making it the biggest archaeological dig Aylesbury st Thursday 21 May Vale –and indeed Britain – has ever seen. ‘Operation Nightingale’ 8 pm Garden Room, Liston Hall* a talk by Phil Andrews of Wessex Archaeology £3.00 AiM members, £4.00 non- Operation Nightingale is an award-winning members project established by the Defence Infrastruc- ture Organisation, and involving Wessex Ar- *Liston Hall’s full address is: chaeology, using archaeology to aid the recov- Chapel Street, Marlow, SL7 1DD. ery of soldiers injured in Afghanistan. 8 pm Garden Room, Liston Hall* Free parking is available in the adjacent £3.00 AiM members, £4.00 non-members car park after 7 pm. Discovery and Reporting of Treasure When someone discovers an artefact or coins that she or he believes meet the criteria for treasure they have 14 days within which they should notify the coroner in that district. Saddle Safari CYCLE SALES & SERVICE 9 Dean Street, Marlow, Bucks, SL7 3AA. Tel. 01628 477020 www.saddlesafari.co.uk 2 New Research on Roman Rural Settlements in Southern Britain A joint talk for Archaeology in Marlow (AiM) and Marlow Archaeological Society (MAS), organised by MAS The Roman rural settlements. settlement project by Reading Uni- Farms can be divided into “enclosed” farms, versity, Cotswold with one or two enclosures, and “complex” Archaeology and farms, with many conjoined enclosures used Archaeological for different activities, e.g. stock, crop proc- Data Systems, essing (such as corn drying), and industry York, is led by (such as iron working) and, possibly, for ritu- Prof. Mike Ful- als. “Enclosed” farms, which are generally of ford. Data Is be- older origin, appear mostly on high ground, and “complex” farms on low ground. ing collected Dr Alex Smith of Reading from many University Villas were surrounded by agricultural es- sources, including tates, usually of “complex” character. The unpublished “grey literature”, on exca- term “villa” includes a wide variety of build- vated sites, nearly half of them developer ings, from palatial Woodchester in the Cots- funded as part of the planning process. wolds to humble Claydon Pike in Oxford- Burials, coins, brooches, pottery and other shire. Roman settlement spread west from finds, as well as environmental remains, earliest settlement in north Kent and the south coast. Upland Cornwall farms were are connected to a site plan, with a sum- rd th mary for each site. So far over 3,600 sites “enclosed” or “rounds”. By the 3 and 4 have been included, covering farmsteads century AD some of the earlier villas in the (the highest number of excavated sites), south east were going out of use. Most high villas and village and roadside “nucleated” status villas and “complex” farms of the later period are found in a central band across England in the river valleys. Deductions about agricultural practices and social systems can be drawn from the study. The number of cattle grew as they were in- creasingly used as plough animals, corre- sponding with an increase in the amount of spelt wheat grown. Most sites show evi- dence of milling, with larger scale centralised production in the central belt and north Kent, and by the 4th century grain was being Whitehall Roman Villa and farm, Nether Heyford exported to troops in the Rhineland. Illustration by Dr John Hodgson Brooches were most commonly found in the 3 New Research on Roman Rural Settlements in Southern Britain (cont) central belt, with coins appearing in in- tral band: decapitation burials, with the de- creasing numbers by the later period, par- capitated head placed by the feet, and prone, ticularly in “nucleated” sites, villas, face down, burials are still unexplained. shrines, temples and “complex” farms. Data will be going on-line with the Arch- Data has been collected on over 14,000 aeological Data Service over the next two rural burials, including around 4,000 from years and the website is to be launched at a the south east and 345 from Buckingham- free national conference in Reading on 14th shire: 40% cremation and 60% inhuma- April 2015. For further information, see: tion, cremation more from the earlier www.reading.ac.uk/archaeology/research/ period and with a south east bias. roman-rural-settlement/ “Deviant”, odd, burials found in the cen- Sarah Greenhous Hunt’s of Marlow For First Class DIY, Hardware and Garden Supplies 35 Station Road, Marlow Tel 01628 488228 4 Warren Wood Update On Sunday the 1st of March we welcomed onto the site map for Warren Wood. Andrew Phil Andrews, of Wessex Archaeology, to and his colleague, David, conducted the Re- Warren Wood to advise us on our plans for sistivity survey and were then shown how the 2015 investigation programme. Phil our Total Station works and both helped to took us on a tour of the area and we in- carry out this topographical survey. Many spected the third enclosure around a kilo- thanks to Andrew and David for helping us metre from our current double enclosure out with good humour and great efficiency. site. We marked out the two trenches which will be dug across the bank and the Concerning future visits, a timetable has now ditch of the inner enclosure and we also been drawn up for fortnightly (mostly) Sun- marked out the places where profiles day visits to Warren Wood on the following across the bank and ditch of the inner en- Sundays:- April 12th and 19th, May 10th and closure will be measured and recorded. 24th, June 7th and 21st, July 5th and 19th (and beyond). In February, we contacted Roger Ainslie th (AiM member) to ask him to conduct a On the 12 of April we intend to recom- resistivity survey at the site, but unfortu- mence our excavation work in Test Pits 10 nately Roger was abroad in late March, so and 11, to start work on the bank and ditch we asked Andrew Hutt from Berkshire trench, to record the profiles and to consider Archaeology Research Group (BARG) if he further excavation options, dependent on would conduct the survey for us and he the results of Andrew’s resistivity survey. agreed to do so. Members may remember Andrew gave AiM a talk on ‘Dovecotes John Laker in Berkshire’ a couple of years ago. The resistivity survey took place on Sunday the 22nd of March on a cold, but sunny day (see photograph). In addition, we con- ducted a topographical survey to record both the resistivity survey grid and other present and future points of investigation 5 Our Common Heritage At the end of January Dave Greenwood and hence they were uncultivated but were myself attended the Chiltern Society’s Com- an important source of grazing, peat, mons Project meeting.