Although both of these sites were badly damaged by ploughing, samples for mollusc analysis were obtained from subsoil hollows and a palaeosol under peat at Feltwell, and from similar subsoil hollows at Methwold. The palaeosol had formed on calcareous marl, which produce d a sparse mollusc assemblage indicating deposition in an open marshy local environment.
The A horizon of the soil included mollusca indicative of wooded conditions, principally Carychium spp, Discus rotundatus and Zonitidae. Subsoil hollows at both sites produced similar assemblages dominated by woodland snails with some freshwater and marsh taxa. They are thought to have been tree throw holes. Vallonia costata was consistently present, and at Methwold comprised up to 22% of total shells. Some localised disturbance of woodland is thought to be represented, but not wholesale clearance.
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FENLAND MANAGEMENT PROJECT REPORT NO 3: CHARRED PLANT MACROFOSSILS AND
MOLLUSCS FROM MORTON FEN SALTERN, LINCOLNSHIRE (MOS 93)
Peter Murphy BSc MPhil
Number of pages - 6
Charred plant macrofossils from the site were thought largely to represent residues from fuel used during brine evaporation. The assemblages were composed of cereal processing waste including weed seeds, chaff and grains, with remains of grassland and freshwater wetland plants and halophytes. Charcoal formed only a small proportion of the flots and there was no evidence for peat burning. It appears that other plant materials were substituted as fuel locally.
Barley was the main cereal crop represented. This is unusual at a rural Roman site in East Anglia, (spelt is almost invariably the predominant cereal represented), and is probably indicative of local cultivation on saline soils, for barley is the most salt-tolerant of cereals. Notes on mollusc shells present, mainly hydrobiids, are given, but these add little to the palaeoecological data from analysis of foraminifers and ostracods.