56. Quatre Communes Du Morbihan : Carentoir
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EAST BRITTANY SURVEY EAST BRITTANY SURVEY SEPTEMBER SEASQN 1988 Introduction B409 (Carentoir ZA161) Fig. 1, 2 A92 (Ruffiac ZK67) Fig. 3 A31/79 (Ruffiac ZN119) Fig. 4 Fig. 5 H132 (Ruffiac ZL40) Fig. 6 674 (Carentoir YB29) Fig. 7 L26 (Ruffiac YA224) Fi g. 8 D153 (Carentoir YK5) Fig. 9 Fig. 10 General Comment Acknowledgements Références EAST BRITTANY SURVEY - OUST/VILAINE WATERSHED SEPTEMBER 1988 The eighth and 1 ast season in a programme of fieldwork, itself part of a larger, multi-disciplinary study of the relationship between land-use and settlement during the 1ast two thousand years, took place from 25 August - 1 October in the communes of Ruffiac, Tréal, St-Nicolas-du-Tertre and Carentoir, in the department of Morbihan in eastern Brittany. The ai m of the study is to détermine when, how and why the exploitation of the environment changed direction within the historic period, and the effects of such changes on social groupings and labour patterns. The complète fieldwork programme consists of systematic -fieldwalking of ail available ploughed fields within the four communes named above, and sampling of fields in the surrounding communes, together with sélective geophysical and geochemical survey, and smal1 excavations to test results; compl ementa.ry envi ronmental analysis is also being undertaken. The fieldwalking programme was completed in 1987, and a survey of ail standing buildings in the core in 1986. The complète study involves (amongst other éléments) analysis of documents, including the very détailed cadastral maps and records of the early nineteenth century. Thèse latter analyses have been completed; the cadastral work allows total reconstruction of the early rà neteenth-century ] andscape and is of parti cul ar value for the fieldwork programme (Asti 11 and Davies 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987)." The 1988 season involved sample excavation of parts of seven fields (B409, A92, A31/79, H132, 874, L26, D153) from which 'total' collection had previously been made (fig. 1). Of thèse, A92 had been started in 1986 and remained to finish. The ai rn of thèse smal 1 excavations was the investigation of surf ace/'sub-surf ace rel at i onshi ps; fields were selected that had provided a wide range of différent surface data so that excavation might produce results that would allow interprétation of the whole mass of surface material. Three days (25 - 27 August) were spent in préparation for the main season by two people, in addition to two spécial five-day planning trips by two in September 1987 and April 1988. The team, consisting of volunteers from a wide range of places, numbered twenty-six, including the directors, one finds assistant and three supervisors; it worked for five weeks from 28 August, with four days off. Anne G'ebhardt joined it for a day for soi 1 sampling and Tony Stevenson for two days for pollen sampling. Overall, 938 mandays were spent on the 1988 season, including travelling time and time off; 787 of thèse were working days. The weather was idéal for much of the season, and only two days were lost because of rain; however, the gênerai dryness meant that the ground was hard and made for very heavy working. EBS 88 B409 (Carentoir Zft 161) B409 lies on a west-facing si ope near the settlement of Le Eiois Guillaume, documentée! from the eighteenth century as a metai rie (fig. 2). The field was permanent meadow in the early nineteenth century. In 1982 it was walked at 50m intervais and was classified as a 'médiéval site'; some Roman pottery was also recovered. In 1987 the field was gridded in 5m squares and walked for 'total' collection. Late Iron- Age/early Roman pottery was recovered (maximum 6 sherds per 5m square) and this tended to concentrate in two areas in the field. The much larger quantity of médiéval pottery (maximum 22 sherds per square) had a si mi 1ar distribution, while the post—medieval pottery (maximum 5 sherds per square) was more evenly spread. Smal1 quantities of brick and tile (maximum 0.5kg per square) were uhevenly distributed, but tended to concentrate in the south of the field, away from the cl Lister i ng of pre—médiéval and médiéval pottery. It was originally hoped to eut lm—wide trenches, 30m apart, across the field, but the crop of maize prevented such extensi ve sampling. The farmer, however, kindly àgjeèd to the prématuré harvesti ng of some of the-? maize so théi we could excavale a 6m square. The square (T36) was si ted in the north-east part of the field where there was a coïncidence of pre—medi eval and médiéval pottery. A test pi t (T37) was also dug in the south west, over a s q u a r e wh i c h h a d produced n o t. a b 1 e q u a n t i t i e s o f pre-medieval pottery and brick and tile. The square T36 was excavated in the same way as H145 and A92 in 1986: a 5% sample was taken for sieving to check recovery rates and l'iand tools were used (Asti 11 and Davies, 1987). The excavation took 85 working days, with a team of five. Trench 36 The plough soi 1 (1) was excavated in four 0.1m spits. Ail the spits produced approximately the same relative proportions of pottery; the total 127 sherds comprised 6"/. pre-medieval (6 Iron-Age, 1 Roman), 88"/. médiéval and 67. post-medieval wares. The médiéval pottery was very largely (947.) of Fabric 1, and the majority (577.) of the post-medieval wares was nineteenth-century. Smal1 quantities of brick and tile were recovered but only from the first three spits (total 23 fragments, 0.787kg). Context 1, however, had in addition to local quartz and quartzite large quantities (120kg) of introduced stone - pink siltstone (K-01M), Brioverian shale (B2-3), sandstone (02) and many lumps of fine black siltstone (03-4), of a quality often used for roofing, material which occurs natural]y about lkm, away (58kg, 317. of stone excavated). A layer of yel1owish-brown sandy loam lay under the plough soil (2). It contained little stone by comparison with the plough soil (59kg, as against 188kg) and very little clearly introduced stone (including only 1kg o-f 03-4, 27. o-f stone excavated); there were large amounts o-f charcoal , usually flecks although some pièces were 5mm across. This layer varied in thickness -from 0.75m on the eastern, up-slope, side o-f the trench to 0.38m on the west. At the east end the top sur-face o-f 2 curved as i-f the layer had been mounded up. This layer could not be total ly excavated over the whole o-f the trench because o-f lack of space for the spoil, so the trench was reduced in size to 6 X 3m. The pottery from this layer (2), like the stone fragments, provides a complète contrast with that of the plough soil. 61 sherds were found, ail of which were Irôn Age, the most common fabri es being the coarse wares 86 (62/1) and 89 (307.); the rest were finer fabrics (Fabrice 13 and 14). Neither brick nor tile was found, but there were smal1 quantities (440g) of Ordovician mudstone at the bottom of the layer (05b-6). A séries of pits was located at the base of context 2, eut into what looked like a buried soil (32). AI 1 had si mi 1ar fills of yel1owish-brown sandy loam with charcoal flecks. On the north side of the trench part of a large pit was excavated (3: lm wide, 0.42m deep>. It had a lower fi II with sliqhtly more charcoal (16) and smail 1 fragments of mudstone; this produced two smal1 and abraded sherds of Iron-Age pottery (Fabric 86); the upper fill (15) had no finds. Another pit was also found in the north section (22: lm wide, 0.42m deep) whose fill (23) had no finds but more mudstone fragments. Mear the east section was an oval pit (25: lm x 0.75m and 0.28m deep); the fill again produced no finds (27). Another pit in section (26: fill 28, no finds) had been eut into by a smal1er pit (7: fill 8). Three intercutting pits were excavated in the centre of the trench. An oval pit (29: 1.15 x 0.6m and 0.08m deep with fill 30) had been eut by a circular pit (17: diameter 0.75m and 0.15m deep) which had a thick deposit of charcoal (14) in its base and then a sandy fill (18). This had in turn been eut by a circular pit (19: 0.6m diameter and 0.1m deep, fill 20). None of thèse pits produced finds. The layer into which thèse pits had been eut was a yellowish clay with charcoal flecks and it overlay a degraded quartzitic Ordovician mudstone (31: 05a/05-6). The surface of this layer sloped in the opposite direction to that of context 2 and to the présent ground surface, that is it occurred at a higher level in the west end of T36 and sloped down to the east. It was on this surface that a spindle whorl of soft brown-yellow mudstone was found. Trench 37 The plough soil (13) was removed in three 0.1m spits. The range o-f pottery recovered -from the top two spits was very différent -from the lowest spit. In the first twenty centimètres 45 sherds were -found; médiéval pottery predominated (837.), -followed by post-medi eval (157.) and a single sherd o-f Roman pottery (27.) ; 52 -fragments o-f brick and tile (1.5B6kg) were recovered.