This volume features the Roman structures discovered at Nantwich, Cheshire, in 2002, which included various large plank-lined tanks, troughs and wicker-lined pits, as well as a range of more conventional features, the whole interpreted as a salt-making site with associated enclosures, a road, rectangular buildings and evidence for funerary activity. The site was clearly unusual in character and spectacularly well preserved by waterlogging, as befits its detailed publication.
The salt production process apparently started with brine collection in the troughs situated on a ‘natural spring line’ (a modern analysis of the water might have been given, since it represents the original resource being exploited). During the second century the brine was stored in the large tanks (dendrochronology suggests a terminus post quem date of a.d. 130–7 for the construction of one of them), but from the later third/fourth century they were replaced by the smaller wicker-lined pits. Actual salt manufacture is assigned to several hearths some 40 m to the north, possibly so located to ensure a drier working area. Comparison is made throughout with a broadly contemporary inland salt production site at Droitwich (Worcs.), where a similar large plank-lined tank was taken to be for settling the brine so that contamination was reduced before salt production. An additional point of interest is that there were deliberately placed large timbers within the Droitwich tank, while at Nantwich one timber (1612) occupies a similar position and seems so symmetrically placed as to be deliberate; at Droitwich they were interpreted as the remains of a brine-lifting apparatus integrated with the tank.
The site narrative is presented largely by reference to areas of activity from north to south, with a section at the end drawing the whole back together with particular attention on phasing. This approach hinders a phased account emerging clearly during the specialist reporting, for what is a site of some complexity which changed character over a long period. However, the reporting rightly focuses on the tanks and the other well-preserved structures. Detailed descriptions are given with clear plans, elevations and photographs, cross-correlated where necessary with finds reports. More of the detailed, especially metrical, data might have been tabulated for better organisation and ease of reading, or else relegated to an archive report on the CD.
The comprehensive specialist reports are traditionally arranged by material and function, and with reference to an activity zone. The extensive use of diagrams for presenting pottery data is welcome, though the very detailed text on dating features by pottery might have benefited from being largely tabulated. As with much of the report, it is difficult to gain a sense of site development until the section on pottery supply is reached, and, even here, this could have usefully employed the two-fold site phasing found in the conclusion, to put across a clearer impression of changing pottery supply over three centuries. Occasionally the figures (e.g. fig. 4.16) are let down by insufficient differentiation in tones.
The other artefact reports are generally well researched and informative. Additional help in the figure captions would have assisted the reader in realising the diverse range of materials being illustrated together without having to refer back to the main text. Clearly some exceptional artefacts were present, for instance pyre goods (bone inlay) and pewter casseroles used for libations, which are indicative of religious activity. Further evidence of votive practice emerges from the charred plant remains, where peas are noted. The site's religious dimensions seem to compete with its more obvious industrial aspect, the latter being confirmed by specialist wooden tools, notably paddles. Evidence from the fired clay is less definite and it is acknowledged that ceramic troughs and containers seem unrepresented, a situation also echoed at Droitwich. The possibility that some of the clay could have come from one of the buildings, which had been damaged by fire, does not seem to have been considered. At Nantwich ‘lead run-off’, though largely associated with unstratified deposits, is taken as evidence that lead pans had been used, set over the hearths. Further study of this material would have been useful, as metal-detecting informs us that melted lead is one of the most common finds from Roman sites. At Droitwich droplets of lead were actually found within (post-Roman) hearth fills.
It is unclear whether the environmental strategy was formulated during excavation or later. The site was, however, well sampled, with useful (e.g. votive) evidence being recovered and a historically brackish environment demonstrated (diatoms). Animal bone reporting is especially perceptive, as the assemblage was notable for cattle skulls, horse limbs, whole dogs and a calf, with the sacrificial angle being uppermost (though no feasting), as well as Mithraism (i.e. military). Though perhaps more banal, the burial of surplus parts of dead/butchered animals might account for much of the assemblage given the prevalence of dog gnawing (i.e. the need to bury any such waste quickly).
An accompanying CD adds much information about the structural timbers and finds, though without a contents list in the printed volume. Such a move to present catalogues is laudable, though technology is quickly changing the best option for achieving this. Some minor issues arise, such as abbreviations not always being explained (e.g. in the pottery catalogue), some diagrams being consigned to the CD when they might have been usefully presented in the main report (e.g. appendix 18.6 wood species), and some .tmp files having been written in error to the CD in appendix 18.
All in all, this is an effective report, which explores the site from many angles and makes an important contribution to our understanding of Roman salt production, while pointing firmly to a military context for this type of industrial activity, at least for this part of Roman Britain.
