Landscape and Settlement in the Vale of York

hinge Spine hinge Turn in 25mm Back board 206mm 8mm 17mm 8mm Front board 206mm Turn in 25mm Turn in Turn in 25mm 25mm Archaeological investigations at Heslington East, York, 2003–13 York, East, Heslington at investigations Archaeological York of Vale the in settlement and Landscape The Vale of York, in North Yorkshire, has been used and shaped by communities since the end of the Landscape and settlement last Ice Age to the modern day. Its earliest, prehistoric features chart the way in which household groups shifted from mobile to more in the Vale of York sedentary forms of occupation over time, culminating in the creation of landscape divisions archaeological investigations at Heslington East, from the end of the Bronze Age, and then recognisable field systems during the Iron Age. York, 2003–13 These landholdings were later transformed as a result of monumental re-organisation in the late Roman period, followed by traces of Anglo-Saxon activity. Various forms of medieval and modern agricultural land use marked the end of the sequence of occupation here. Throughout all periods, a variety of activity types on the landscape have been evident in the landscape, taking significantly different forms in different contexts: water management; the creation of boundaries; agricultural production; structural development, from domestic houses to larger monuments; exchange and consumption; and mortuary practices, plus other ritual activity. Landscape and Settlement in the Vale of York provides a thematic analysis of excavated evidence 303mm board Front from the locale, combining the results of commercial, student training and local community Back board 303mm board Back fieldwork between 2007 and 2013. A concluding chapter discusses temporal change by looking at key points of transition in landscape activity in the area and interpreting one of the largest exposures of prehistoric and Roman activity in the immediate hinterland of Eboracum, a major Roman town in Britain. Steve Roskams worked for a decade in rescue archaeology, directing excavations in Tunisia and in the City of London before moving to the University of York, where he teaches archaeology. Alongside work abroad, in Algeria and Beirut, he has undertaken the investigation of sites in Devon, in Wiltshire, and Iron Age and Roman landscapes and settlement on the Yorkshire Wolds. He advises York City Council on archaeological matters and co-wrote the Yorkshire Archaeological Research Framework. Steve Roskams and Cath Neal Cath and Roskams Steve Cath Neal is a freelance heritage consultant/malacologist and a Research Associate at the University of York, having previously worked at the university as a Research Fellow and Associate Lecturer. Her research explores the interface between natural and cultural landscapes, and approaches to palaeoenvironmental reconstruction and modelling. Currently researching the relationship between the historic environment and civic engagement/inclusion, she is exploring the potential impacts on health and wellbeing. Steve Roskams and Cath Neal 00 Roskams Prelims 4th.qxd:Layout 1 08/06/2020 08:55 Page i Landscape and Settlement in the Vale of York 00 Roskams Prelims 4th.qxd:Layout 1 08/06/2020 08:55 Page ii This project was funded by the University of York, as site developers, with additional funding provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund to facilitate community engagement with the work. The authors and publisher are grateful to the following organisations for their generous financial support. The University of York Heritage Lottery Fund 00 Roskams Prelims 4th.qxd:Layout 1 08/06/2020 08:55 Page iii Landscape and Settlement in the Vale of York Archaeological investigations at Heslington East, York, 2003–13 Steve Roskams and Cath Neal Research Report of the Society of Antiquaries of London No. 82 00 Roskams Prelims 4th.qxd:Layout 1 08/06/2020 08:55 Page iv First published 2020 by The Society of Antiquaries of London Burlington House Piccadilly London W1J 0BE www.sal.org.uk © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2020 ISBN: 978-0-85431-302-0 British Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. The moral rights of Steve Roskams and Cath Neal to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation, no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Project management: Lavinia Porter Copy-editing: Mary Hobbins Proofreading: Lavinia Porter Index: Sue Vaughan Original series design: Tracy Wellman and Sue Cawood Design and layout: Sue Cawood Printed and bound by Lavenham Press, Lavenham, Suffolk Front cover figure: Base of good-quality stone kiln. © DoA Back cover figure: Head pot fragment from ditch G12. © DoA 00 Roskams Prelims 4th.qxd:Layout 1 08/06/2020 08:55 Page v Contents List of figures vii List of tables viii Preface ix Acknowledgements xi Summary xiii Résumé xv Zusammenfassung xvii Chapter 1 Landscape assessment – evaluating archaeological site evaluation 1 1.1 Project background 1 1.2 Reconnaissance 2 1.3 Evaluation 4 1.4 Data gathering 9 1.5 Post-excavation assessment and analysis 10 1.6 Archiving, future access and publication policy 15 Chapter 2 Landscape resources – nature and culture 17 2.1 Drift geology and formation processes 17 2.2 Exploitation of wood and stone sources 22 2.3 Exploitation of water sources 23 Chapter 3 Bounded landscapes – enclosure, delineation and movement 30 3.1 Early control of livestock 30 3.2 Iron Age field systems at the western margin and enclosures to the east 32 3.3 Roman landscape boundaries in the centre of the site 36 3.4 A new late Roman enclosure at the centre of the site 38 3.5 Modifications to landholding in the northern central zone in the late fourth century AD 40 3.6 Medieval and later activity across the site 40 Chapter 4 Productive landscapes – food production 42 4.1 The pastoral economy 42 4.2 The agricultural economy 45 Chapter 5 Productive landscapes – specialist manufacture 52 5.1 Artefacts circumstantially indicating production 52 v 00 Roskams Prelims 4th.qxd:Layout 1 08/06/2020 08:55 Page vi 5.2 Prehistoric production at the margins of the site 53 5.3 Early Roman production towards the east of the site 57 5.4 Early Roman production in the centre of the site 59 Chapter 6 Domestic landscapes – structures and household activities 64 6.1 Circumstantial prehistoric evidence 64 6.2 Iron Age roundhouses 65 6.3 Circumstantial Roman evidence 74 6.4 Late/post-Roman structures 77 Chapter 7 Consumption in the landscape – import, use and discard 82 7.1 General patterns 82 7.2 Local, regional and long-distance exchange mechanisms 86 7.3 Consumption practices 90 7.4 Discard practices 95 Chapter 8 Ideological landscapes – human burial, monumentality and other specialised deposition 97 8.1 Bronze Age cremations and associated deposition 98 8.2 Iron Age decapitation and landscape division 101 8.3 Structured deposition at the Iron Age/Roman transition, including an early Roman cremation 102 8.4 Burial of neonates and adults in relation to Roman landscape organisation 102 8.5 A late Roman enclosure with monumental features and structured deposition 105 8.6 Late Roman masonry Well 7 and associated symbolism 112 Chapter 9 Transitions in the landscape – change within and between conventional periods 114 9.1 Transitioning from mobility to sedentism 114 9.2 Transitioning between late prehistory and the Roman period 121 9.3 Transitioning within the Roman period 128 9.4 Transitioning between the late Roman and the sub-Roman/Anglian periods 137 9.5 Transitioning between the medieval and modern periods 141 Notes 146 Abbreviations and bibliography 150 Index 160 vi 00 Roskams Prelims 4th.qxd:Layout 1 08/06/2020 08:55 Page vii List of figures Fig 0.1 Site location plan ix Fig 3.7 Road 1 and associated Roman enclosures, with central ‘crossroads’ 37 Chapter 1 Fig 3.8 Road 2 and associated late Roman enclosure laid Fig 1.1 Local schoolchildren enjoying the hands-on out north of Road 1 38 experience of learning to make a Roman kiln and Fig 3.9 Medieval furrows across the site and a possible then using it to fire pots 3 contemporary droveway near its eastern limit 41 Fig 1.2 Distribution of flint from YAT fieldwalking undertaken during site evaluation 5 Chapter 4 Fig 1.3 Positions of machine-dug trenches 5 Fig 4.1 Crop drier 6254 in the course of excavation 47 Fig 1.4 The results of geophysical prospection in the central Fig 4.2 Tile lining of crop drier 10171 48 part of the site 7 Fig 4.3 Charcoal assemblage composition by fragments: Fig 1.5 Trial trenching from site 8 end of the Iron Age; middle of the Roman period; end of the Roman period 49 Chapter 2 Fig 4.4 Millstone with off-centre, D-shaped perforation, Fig 2.1 General plan of the Vale of York and position of plus evidence of random pecking misaligned Heslington East site 18 grooves at edges 50 Fig 2.2 Site features showing Kimberlow Hill, kettle holes, palaeochannel, springline at 22m OD and position Chapter 5 of Wells 1–7 19 Fig 5.1 Possible early hearth in the east of the site 53 Fig 2.3 Strata filling the palaeochannel, here being prepared Fig 5.2 The blade end of polished stone axe from a for geoarchaeological sampling 20 Neolithic pit 54 Fig 2.4 Charcoal assemblage composition by total

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