Withington, Gloucestershire
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Wessex Archaeology Withington, Gloucestershire Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of the Results Ref: 59468.01 May 2006 Withington, Gloucestershire Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results Prepared on behalf of Videotext Communications Ltd 49 Goldhawk Road LONDON SW1 8QP By Wessex Archaeology Portway House Old Sarum Park SALISBURY Wiltshire SP4 6EB Report reference: 59468.01 May 2006 © Wessex Archaeology Limited 2006, all rights reserved Wessex Archaeology Limited is a Registered Charity No. 287786 Withington, Gloucestershire Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results Contents Summary Acknowledgements 1 INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................1 1.1 Description of the Site................................................................................1 1.2 Historical Background...............................................................................1 1.3 Previous Archaeological Work .................................................................2 2 METHODS...........................................................................................................3 2.1 Introduction................................................................................................3 2.2 Aims and Objectives ..................................................................................3 2.3 Fieldwork Methods ....................................................................................3 3 RESULTS.............................................................................................................4 3.1 Introduction................................................................................................4 3.2 Site A: Manor Court Field ........................................................................5 Geophysical Survey......................................................................................5 Trench 1 (Figures 1, 6 & 7).........................................................................5 Trench 4 (Figures 1, 8 & 9).........................................................................8 Trench 5 (Figures 1 & 10)...........................................................................9 3.3 Site B: Withington Villa (SM GC200)......................................................9 Geophysical Survey......................................................................................9 Archaeological Evaluation ........................................................................10 Trench 2 (Figures 1 & 11).........................................................................10 Trench 3 (Figures 1 & 11).........................................................................11 Trench 6 (Figures 1 & 12).........................................................................11 3.4 Site C .........................................................................................................12 Geophysical Survey....................................................................................12 Trench 7 (Figure 1) ...................................................................................12 Trench 8 (Figures 1 & 13).........................................................................12 4 FINDS .................................................................................................................13 4.1 Introduction..............................................................................................13 4.2 Pottery.......................................................................................................13 Romano-British ..........................................................................................13 Post-Roman................................................................................................14 4.3 Ceramic and Stone Building Material ...................................................14 Roof tiles ....................................................................................................15 Box flue tiles...............................................................................................15 Bricks .......................................................................................................16 Tesserae .....................................................................................................16 Miscellaneous building material................................................................16 4.4 Opus Signinum and Wall Plaster ...........................................................17 4.5 Glass ..........................................................................................................17 4.6 Metalworking Slag ...................................................................................17 i 4.7 Metalwork.................................................................................................18 Coins .......................................................................................................18 Copper alloy...............................................................................................18 Iron .......................................................................................................18 Lead .......................................................................................................18 4.8 Animal Bone .............................................................................................18 Condition and preservation .......................................................................19 Animal husbandry ......................................................................................19 Consumption and deposition......................................................................19 4.9 Marine Shell..............................................................................................19 4.10 Potential and Further Recommendations..............................................20 5 ENVIRONMENTAL RESULTS .....................................................................20 5.1 Introduction..............................................................................................20 5.2 Methods.....................................................................................................20 5.3 Results .......................................................................................................21 Charred Plant Remains..............................................................................21 Charcoal.....................................................................................................21 Land Molluscs............................................................................................21 5.4 Potential and Further Recommendations..............................................21 Charred plant remains...............................................................................21 Charcoal.....................................................................................................22 Land molluscs ............................................................................................22 6 DISCUSSION.....................................................................................................22 6.1 Introduction..............................................................................................22 6.2 Site A: Manor Court Field ......................................................................22 The Bath-House..........................................................................................22 The Tank or Pool........................................................................................23 The ‘Union Jack’ hypocaust ......................................................................24 6.3 Site B: Withington Villa ..........................................................................25 6.4 Site C: a possible spring?.........................................................................26 7 ARCHIVE ..........................................................................................................26 8 RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................................26 9 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................27 TABLES Table 1: Finds totals by material type and by trench Table 2: Pottery totals by ware type Table 3: Ceramic and stone building material totals by type and by trench Table 4: Animal bone condition and potential (% of total) Table 5: Animal bone species present as a percentage of identified fragments Table 6: Assessment of the charcoal and charred plant remains Appendix 1 Trench summaries ii FIGURES Front Cover Excavation of Trench 1 Figure 1 Site and trench locations showing Sites A, B and C Figure 2 Lysons’ plan of Withington Villa Figure 3 Lysons’ illustrations of the mosaics of Withington Villa Figure 4 Painting of the excavations of Withington Villa Figure 5 Site showing interpretation of geophysical survey results Figure 6 Detail of Trench 1 with Plates 1-4 Figure 7 North facing section of Trench 1 Figure 8 Detail of Trench 4 with Plates 5-7 Figure 9 North east facing section of Trench 4 Figure 10 Detail of Trench 5 with Plate 8 Figure 11 Detail of Trenches 2 and 3 with Plates 9-11 Figure 12 Detail of Trench 6 with Plates 12-15 Figure 13 Detail of Trench 8 with Plate 16 Back Cover Excavation of mosaic fragment in Trench 1 iii Withington, Gloucestershire Archaeological Evaluation and