Excavation Report
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T H A M E S V A L L E Y ARCHAEOLOGICAL S E R V I C E S Roman occupation on land off Orchard Way, Harwell, Oxfordshire Archaeological Excavation by Pierre-Damien Manisse Site Code: OWH19/62 (SU 4881 8915 ) Roman occupation on land off Orchard Way, Harwell, Oxfordshire An Archaeological Excavation For Heritage Plan by Pierre-Damien Manisse Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd Site Code OWH 19/62 November 2019 Summary Site name: Land off Orchard Way, Harwell, Oxfordshire Grid reference: SU 4881 8915 Site activity: Archaeological Excavation Date and duration of project: 15th July to 2nd August 2019 Project coordinator: Tim Dawson Site supervisor: Pierre-Damien Manisse Site code: OWH 19/62 Area of site: 2300 sq. m. Summary of results: A number of cut features (ditch, gullies, pit) were revealed spanning Late Iron Age/Early Roman to Later Roman times. They included a refuse pit, possible well or water hole, parts of enclosures, several parallel gullies that could be traces of land exploitation and two other perpendicular gullies that might have defined a pathway. A cremation unurned but contained within a container of perishable material, such as a casket, had been highly decorated with nails. Location and reference of archive: The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, Reading and will be deposited at Oxfordshire Museum Service in due course. This report may be copied for bona fide research or planning purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. All TVAS unpublished fieldwork reports are available on our website: www.tvas.co.uk/reports/reports.asp. Report edited/checked by: Steve Ford 24.11.19 Steve Preston 21.11.19 i Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd, 47–49 De Beauvoir Road, Reading RG1 5NR Tel. (0118) 926 0552; email [email protected]; website: www.tvas.co.uk Roman occupation on land off Orchard Way, Harwell, Oxfordshire An Archaeological Excavation by Pierre-Damien Manisse Report 19/62 Introduction This report documents the results of an archaeological excavation carried out on land off Orchard Way, Harwell, Oxfordshire (centred on NGR SU 4881 8915) (Fig. 1). The work was commissioned by Ms Sam Driscoll, of Heritage Plan Ltd, 53 Marshfield Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN15 1JS on behalf of Feltham Properties Ltd, 42 London Road, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 1LA. Planning permission (P14/V2286/O) has been granted by the Vale of White Horse District Council for a residential development on the site. The consent was subject to two conditions (9, 10) relating to archaeology which required the implementation of a programme of archaeological work in advance of the development. This is in accordance with the Department for Communities and Local Government’s National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF 2012) and the District’s policies on archaeology. The field investigation was carried out to a specification approved by Mr Hugh Coddington, Archaeology Team Leader with Oxfordshire County Council and adviser to the District on matters relating to archaeology. The fieldwork was undertaken by Pierre- Damien Manisse, assisted by Richard Dewhurst and Anne-Michelle Huvig, between 15th July and 2nd August 2019. The site code is OWH 19/62. The archive is presently held at Thames Valley Archaeological Services, 47-49 de Beauvoir Road, Reading, RG1 5NR and will be deposited at Oxfordshire Museum Service in due course. Location, topography and geology The site is located off Orchard Way on the western edge of Harwell, Oxfordshire (Fig. 1). It is accessed through a narrow path, between residential properties. It is bordered to the south and north by the back gardens of those houses and to the west by a meadow (Fig. 2). At the time of the excavation it was a derelict garden which had been cleared of vegetation prior to the beginning of the excavation. It is a flat plot of land, roughly 50m square, lying at a height of approximately 83m aOD (above Ordnance Datum). The underlying geology is Upper Greensand formation (BGS 1971. Head deposits were recorded on the site. 1 Archaeological background The archaeological potential of the site was addressed in a desk-based assessment (CgMs 2014) and confirmed in an evaluation (JMHS 2014). Stray finds and sites of the Iron Age, Roman and Saxon periods are known in the vicinity. Some 250m to the north-east, an extensive Iron Age occupation had been discovered at Grove Road (Thompson 2018), where the excavation also revealed some Roman and Saxon presence. Further east two nearby excavations unearthed a similar chronological range of finds and features (Taylor 2017; Taylor and Preston 2017). The evaluation of the site itself in 2014 consisted of two trenches, which revealed that the site held traces of Roman activity interpreted as an extension of the Grove Road settlement (JMHS 2014). Objectives and methodology Based on the evaluation results the site was to be excavated in order to investigate the nature of the Roman occupation. The purpose of the excavation was to: record and, if necessary, excavate and record all archaeological deposits and features within the areas threatened by the proposed development; produce relative and absolute dating and phasing for deposits and features recorded on the site; establish the character of these deposits in attempt to define functional areas on the site such as industrial, domestic, etc.; and to produce information on the economy and local environment and compare and contrast this with the results of other excavations in the region. Specific research objectives were to attempt to answer the following questions: When was the site first utilised and when was it abandoned? Is the Roman use of the site simply part of a wider enclosed landscape or is it near the centre of a settlement complex? How do the deposits here relate to other Roman settlement recorded further to the north? What is the palaeoenvironmental setting of the area? Due to the limited space available for spoil, given that the entire site area was to be excavated, the project was divided into two phases, each half of the site in turn serving for topsoil and subsoil (kept separate) storage while the other was stripped and excavated. Topsoil was to be removed under continuous archaeological supervision by a digger fitted with a toothless bucket to expose the uppermost surface of archaeological deposits. Where appropriate and necessary, hand cleaning of the stripped surface would then take place. All archaeological features were to be planned and sectioned as a minimum objective, with full excavation or sampling of features according to an agreed sampling strategy depending on the nature and significance of the feature(s). 2 Results The excavation was carried out as planned. A 360o tracked excavator, equipped with a toothless grading bucket, 1.84m wide, was used throughout the project. A metal detector (Fischer F70) was used to enhance metal finds recovery, both on site and on subsoil, but with meagre results. A small area of grass was left preserved along the site’s western edge but otherwise the entire site was stripped as close as possible to the edges (Fig. 2). Some geotechnical test pits had previously been dug (location marked in grey on Figs 2 and 3): nothing of archaeological interest was visible in these. The stratigraphy across the site was topsoil (50), a dark grey silt, 0.25-0.35m in thickness, overlying a 0.25- 0.35m thick subsoil, (51), best described as a pale brown-grey silt with scarce small sub-angular limestones (0.01-0.10m). The lower deposit encountered, (52), was a very light greenish grey silty clay, with nodular limestones in places. A moderate amount of archaeological features (ditch, gullies, pits) (Fig. 3), were directly cut into the natural geology, with no palaeo-horizon being preserved. Roman features Except for two pits, most of the other dated features presented a mixed assemblage of pottery, with dates spanning from the Late Iron Age to the Late Roman period. Although some individual sherds could be dated to either the 1st, 2nd or 3rd/4th centuries, feature assemblages were so tiny, and often so mixed, that no strong reliance could be placed on such fine-grained chronology. The Late Iron Age sherds in particular were almost always associated with late Roman wares. The pottery evidence rather suggested a long period of use for all features, or the filling of features only after long periods of middening. As a consequence it seems preferable not to attempt to phase periods of occupation more precisely than broadly Roman, although features are discussed below in an approximate chronological order. Gully 118 and waterhole 42 were dated by stratigraphic means. Gully 122 was undated but its similarity to other gullies and shape in plan makes it likely to be contemporary with them. Towards the south-west corner was isolated oval pit 6 (Fig. 4; Pl. 2). It measured 1.70m x 1.52m and was 0.43m deep. It had irregular steep slopes and a flattish base. Fill 58 was a firm mid to pale brown grey clayey silt with rare limestone lumps, up to 0.20m. A large quantity of disarticulated animal bones from at least two cows were found within as well as two Late Iron Age (LIA) to early Roman (ER) pottery sherds. On this modest dating evidence, this appears to be the earliest feature on site. 3 A small oval pit (1) (Fig. 4; Pl. 1) located just outside the west corner of enclosure 111, contained a charcoal-rich deposit. It represents an unurned cremation burial as just over 300g of burnt human bones were collected. The bones were accompanied by numerous handmade iron nails of various sizes which suggest that the human remains had been buried in a perishable container.