Gloucestershire

(1) Badgeworth, A417 Missing Link scheme involving the construction of a dual carriageway (SO 91511584, SO 91541569 and SO 91671577): excavation was undertaken on part of the later Iron Age to Roman activity. Excavation took place on a number of ditches, three of which appeared to form a sub-rectilinear enclosure. Roman occupation was further evidenced by a series of probable field/boundary ditches, including a long-lived boundary with multiple recuts. Close to this boundary was an adult crouched burial radiocarbon-dated to the middle Iron Age (346–53 cal. b.c.). Finds included pottery, fired clay from ovens/kilns, ceramic and stone tile, iron smithing slag, nails and two knives, along with a fairly well preserved faunal assemblage and a sparser assemblage of charred plant remains. Ridge-and-furrow cultivation took place across the site in the medieval/post-medieval periods.Footnote ¹

(2) Birdlip, a) part of the A417 Missing Link scheme (SO 94111495, SO 94231476 and SO 94251465): an excavation and watching brief programme revealed Roman occupation predominantly dated to the early-middle Roman period. This included a metalled trackway and ditches forming boundaries, enclosures or fields, with two sub-rectilinear enclosures identified. The Roman activity was peripheral to a settlement focus immediately to the north of the site, identified through earlier geophysical survey and trial trenching. An isolated inhumation burial produced a radiocarbon date of cal. a.d. 675-880.Footnote ¹¹³

b) Birdlip, part of the A417 Missing Link scheme – Area 25 (SO 93231524): an excavation revealed a square, ditched enclosure which contained early–middle Roman period pottery. The enclosure surrounded a central pit. The pit contained a cremation burial (associated with numerous nails) which may have been interred in a wooden box or casket. Also associated with the burial were the melted remains of two glass vessels that had been placed on the pyre. Located directly adjacent to this pit was a further urned cremation burial that may have contained the burnt remains of two individuals, one a child, and the other an adolescent or adult, along with two coins dating to the a.d. 70s. A disturbed layer overlying both burials contained further cremated bone, and three copper alloy lion-headed mounts, that may have derived from the box burial.Footnote ¹¹⁴

(3) Brockworth, Perrybrook (SO 88600 17319): an excavation followed on from a geophysical survey and trial trench evaluation, The excavation exposed elements of a late prehistoric and Roman period landscape that includes two possible roundhouses, enclosures and a ditched trackway aligned along the northern bank of the Horsbere Brook. Occupation of the site may have begun in the century prior to the Roman conquest, as middle Iron Age tradition pottery was recovered from a disparate group of pits, gullies and a post-hole spread across the area. An undated crouched burial may also date from this phase. In the first century a.d., settlement was multifocal as it included at least two rectangular ditched enclosures. Their relationship with a sweeping trackway was obscured by a boundary ditch cut in the second or third century a.d., but it is accepted that they would have had direct access. The inhabitants were represented by two inhumation burials and possibly two unurned cremation burials. One of the inhumations may have been buried in a wooden coffin, implied by iron nails. The site lies adjacent to areas of previous investigation which yielded similarly dated finds and features.Footnote ¹¹⁵

(4) Coberley, part of the A417 Missing Link scheme (SO 93731643): an excavation revealed an adult inhumation burial which was radiocarbon dated to the late Roman period (cal. a.d. 250–383).Footnote ¹¹⁶

(5) Innsworth, northwest of the village (SO 852 212):Footnote ¹¹⁷ a period of occupation is evident perhaps as early as the middle Iron Age. Features dating between the middle Iron Age and early/mid‐Roman period included a series of enclosures, a field system, and several waterholes, wells and pits. This intensive exploitation of the site appears to have continued throughout the Roman period with further enclosures, a trackway, and a field system all identified. The Roman period also saw the establishment of a small cemetery, which comprised twelve inhumation burials, most of which were aligned north–south. The burials were located just to the east of a boundary ditch with a NNE–SSW orientation.Footnote ¹¹⁸

(6) Willersey (SP 0997 4026): a pair of Roman cavalry swords, reported in ‘II Finds Reported Under the Portable Antiquities Scheme’ in this volume, and X-rayed by Historic England, were found during a metal detecting rally. Historic England conducted a geophysical survey in 2023 of the two fields surrounding the find, the results showing a potential extensive late prehistoric and Romano-British landscape surviving under denuded ridge and furrow. Further to this an auger survey undertaken by Historic England in July 2024 demonstrated that stratigraphic deposits were present, and to significant depth. Historic England and Cotswold Archaeology collaborated over an excavation, comprising eight machine-opened trenches with a total area of 860 m², to explore the immediate findspot and to assess the wider settlement as identified by the geophysics.Footnote ¹¹⁹ The remains uncovered closely matched those identified by the geophysics and attested to a long period of settlement on the site, potentially from the early Iron Age through to the Roman period.

Based on preliminary assessment, the sequence that can be seen is a settlement founded in the early–middle Iron Age represented by three, possibly four, ring ditches, measuring up to 18.5 m in diameter. Possibly from the same period were an inhumation complete with an iron band around the upper right arm, and a horse skull burial. Later in the Iron Age, or early Roman period, a large rectangular enclosure, 68 m × 55 m, was constructed, the ditch being substantial, over 5 m across and over 0.85 m deep (not bottomed). There were few finds recovered from this ditch, which had been recut at least once, but they did include a single articulated human arm, and a separate hand. The remains of a robbed-out Roman limestone masonry building sat across the north-west corner of the silted-up enclosure ditch, and the remains of further Roman buildings were observed continuing at least 50 m to the north and 20 m east–west, with geophysics showing potential stone structures to the south. Much redeposited Roman building material, including ceramic roofing and box flue tile, and painted wall plaster, usually associated with a high-status building, was found in later deposits and the initial interpretation is that a substantial, possibly winged, villa sat on the site.

The sword findspot was successfully relocated allowing its examination, a key aim of the work. No associated feature was identified, and it is likely that the hole dug by the detectorists to recover the swords was of the same dimension, or larger, than that originally dug to bury them. They were not associated with a burial, and any surface their enclosing pit was dug through has been lost to ploughing. The swords most likely relate to the possible villa complex identified, but the circumstance of their deposition is at present unknown. Post-excavation is due to commence later in 2025 and be complete in 2026.Footnote ¹²⁰

South Gloucestershire

(1) Thornbury, Land northwest of Thornbury (ST 63345 91640): an excavation identified Iron Age/early Roman activity comprising several ring ditches representing roundhouses, possibly forming part of an unenclosed settlement. The settlement was replaced by a substantial Roman boundary ditch that underwent several episodes of maintenance and may have demarcated the periphery of a settlement. Contemporary enclosures, field systems and a trackway were located to the north of the ditch, while the area to the south contained a small number of discrete features. Several undated inhumation burials are likely to be Roman, and a Roman cremation burial was also present. Within the enclosures, notable features included the remains of a possible timber structure, quarry pits and an area of probable ironworking associated with a small ring ditch.Footnote ¹²¹