WILTSHIRE

(1) Wroughton, Building One site, Science Museum (SU 13876 79092): an excavation identified early Roman enclosures laid out across a former Iron Age settlement. A large Roman crop-processing oven was sited within a prehistoric barrow. A small Roman cemetery was also present.Footnote ¹¹²

SWINDON

(1) Lotmead, Swindon Eastern Villages (SU 19760 85179): an evaluation identified remains relating to peripheral agricultural activity associated with the Roman roadside settlement of Durocornovium on Ermin Street (Scheduled Monument NHL 1004684) and confirmed the results of a preceding geophysical survey and evaluation. Roman remains included enclosures, field or boundary ditches, pits and two inhumation graves. The pottery assemblage primarily comprises local and regional wares, of which only a small quantity could be dated definitively to after the second century a.d., suggesting that activity was focused within the early Roman period. Other finds included hobnails, two fourth-century bronze nummi and two small fragments of a possible Roman figurine.Footnote ¹¹³

(2) Stanton Fitzwarren, site east of Stanton Fitzwarren (SU 17904 90857): an archaeological evaluation was undertaken in 2020 to test a series of rectilinear enclosures identified through geophysical survey and to investigate the presence of a large settlement complex, thought to be Roman in date. The evaluation identified two main foci of Late Iron Age to late Roman settlement activity, in the central and south-eastern parts of the site, and three discrete enclosures. In the centre of the site, three features were dated as Late Iron Age to early Roman, including two pits and one curvilinear ditch. The ditch was probably a roundhouse gully and contained fired clay and burnt stone, suggesting the presence of structural debris. This settlement developed in the early to middle Roman period, when it was defined by a series of ditches and small enclosures. Another roundhouse ditch was recorded in this area and contained pottery of middle Roman date. Numerous pits, post-holes and layers associated with the settlement were also encountered. A single unurned cremation burial was recorded in the west of the main settlement area. The evidence suggests this was a large enclosed rural settlement rather than a villa or high-status complex. An east–west trackway was located at the northern end of the main settlement; this appears to have been contemporary with the settlement and was still being infilled into the fourth century a.d. In the first half of the third century a.d., sub-rectangular enclosures were created either side of the trackway, which continued in use into the late Roman period. In the south-eastern part of the site, a further area of regularly laid out enclosures was targeted. Pottery recovered from the surfaces of pits and an occupation layer dates to the early Roman and middle Roman periods. This suggests the occupation here was broadly of the same date as that in the central part of the site.Footnote ¹¹⁴

HAMPSHIRE

(1) Brockenhurst, New Copse Inclosure (SU 3200 0250): excavation continued in 2019 on the site investigated in 2018Footnote ¹¹⁵ and established that a building with a red tessellated pavement had been constructed in the southern part of the earthwork enclosure. It had a rectangular plan, with wooden sill-beams as base plates for wooden or wattle-and-daub-style walling. The tessellated floor had virtually no mortar foundation; this may have leached away due to the acidity of the soil matrix. A second excavation area revealed a cobble-wall footing, probably for a mud or cob wall. In all, at least three simple structures have been located, all positioned around the periphery of the D-shaped earthwork enclosure. Test trenches in the centre indicated that this part of the enclosure was probably not occupied by buildings. Notable amongst the building material from the excavation are pieces of circular column tile, but it is not clear whether a portico or similar structure existed on the site or if the tiles were part of a batch of imported spolia from another site.Footnote ¹¹⁶

(2) Meonstoke, Exton Manor Farm (SU 6162 2105): the hexagonal building excavated in 2016–18Footnote ¹¹⁷ was further investigated in 2019 and 2020. Stratigraphy beneath it indicated that the initial phase consisted of a Late Iron Age/early Roman transition-period ditch, into which the equid skeletons excavated in 2018 had been placed. Further equid remains were found in 2019, including a cranium. It is likely that the hexagonal building was deliberately positioned over the ditch where it curved to form a corner of an enclosure and that this corner was a probable offering point, with rituals linked to possible sacrifice and deposition of horse remains. The bath-house just to the north of the hexagonal building was fully uncovered. It had a plan typical of villas in Hampshire, with three apsidal rooms in the heated part of the baths (fig. 20). A new excavation area was opened to the south of the hexagonal building, where magnetometry survey had indicated a substantial masonry structure. This proved to be the wide flint raft foundation (6.76 by 6.76 m) for a mausoleum, with a central space, c. 3 by 3 m. Within this space was a tile dump that may represent the bottom of an undated robbing pit sunk into the mausoleum from above. Adjacent to the tile feature was a deposit of displaced human bones, of a young adult, and two large iron nails, probably from a wooden coffin.Footnote ¹¹⁸

FIG. 20.

Meonstoke: block plan of Roman Site West Range, showing, from left, the mausoleum, the hexagonal shrine and the bath-house. Key: (1) features of Late Iron Age/mid-first-century a.d. date; (2) masonry structures of the third to fourth century a.d.; (3) hypocausted rooms; (4) plunge pools; (5) post-Roman channels of the river Meon; (A) positions of foal skeleton (upper triangle), mare skeleton (middle triangle) and horse cranium (lower triangle); (B) disarticulated human bones in the chamber of the mausoleum.

(3) Warsash: a hoard of 1,153 radiates and one denarius. The denarius is of the sole reign of Gallienus (a.d. 260–68); the radiates range from the joint reign of Valerian and Gallienus (a.d. 253–60) through to the reign of Tacitus (a.d. 275–76). Deposited c. a.d. 277 or later.Footnote ¹¹⁹

CORNWALL

(1) St Levan V: 14 British Iron Age gold staters and quarter staters and one illegible Roman Republican or Imperial denarius in two halves. The coins are from the same broad area as previously reported dispersed groups of Iron Age and early Roman coins.Footnote ¹²⁰ A further 83 coins were found scattered after ploughing and removal of several rocks. This brings the total number of coins for this find to 98. Discrete groups of coins were found and are likely to represent sequential ritualised deposition over a large area. The latest coin in the first group dates to a.d. 68–69.Footnote ¹²¹