Elms Farm Project, Heybridge, Essex

M. Atkinson and S. Preston
Essex County Council
Field Archaeology Group

Map Showing Location of Heybridge

Background Excavation Preliminary Post-Excavation Analysis Original Project Objectives Revised Research Objectives The potential to address the revised research objectives Integration with existing research Publication Methodology Stratigraphical Methodology Artifactual Methodology Analytical Methods Environmental Methodologies Scientific Methodologies Conservation Methodology Further Fieldwork Revised General Objectives : An Overview Post RGO Work Bibliography

Background

The site of Elms Farm is located on the western edge of Heybridge in Essex, north-west of the town of Maldon at the head of the Blackwater estuary (TL847082). A total area of twenty-one hectares was investigated in two phases (1993 and 1994/5) out of a total threatened area of twenty-nine hectares. The excavations demonstrated the existence of an important Iron Age settlement and ritual complex, a large Roman settlement and a succeeding Saxon settlement. Following the completion of the fieldwork phase, an assessment period resulted in the production of an assessment document outlining the nature and potential of the excavated material and records. The updated project design (summarised here) draws upon both the original project design and the assessment report to present a series of research objectives and methodologies which will guide the post-excavation phase of the project.

The excavation

The excavation took place in two phases, with 3.5 hectares (plus trial trenches to cover a total of 8 ha) being excavated in 1993 and 9.35 hectares opened in 1994/5. Although it proved impossible to sample all the features revealed during the second phase, the excavation produced a very substantial body of data, in the form of records, artefacts and environmental material. The material consisted of four broad groups:

Prehistoric

Material dating to the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, early and middle Iron Ages was found in isolated pockets across the site. It was clear that these had survived by chance and, being fragmentary, were not easy to place in context. Bronze Age funerary and settlement evidence was better preserved. As the prehistoric remains are unrelated to the later evidence, they are to be published separately.

The Late Iron Age site

The Late Iron Age saw the beginning of the major phase of the settlement and, possibly, its greatest spatial extent. The layout of the settlement was established in this period with the street plan and land divisions continuing into the Roman period. The origin of the temple also belongs to this phase of the site, as, does much of the evidence for metalworking. Iron Age features were found to underlie Roman features and it is probable that the Iron Age site was somewhat larger than later phases.

The Roman site

The evidence recovered from the Roman phases suggested that the site differed little from its Late Iron Age predecessor. The temple complex was added to during the Roman period, but the street plan and major land boundaries saw relatively little change. The excavation produced important evidence relating to settlement morphology, the environment and the economy of the settlement, but there was no evidence to support early claims that it had been a port.

The Saxon site

Although relatively few Saxon features were located, those which were provided evidence for the continued occupation of the site into the fifth century and appeared to indicate continuity of settlement. Occupation does not seem to have continued beyond the end of the fifth century, with later finds being limited to casual losses.

Preliminary post-excavation analysis

The preliminary phases of post-excavation analysis focused on the stratigraphy of the site, with the emphasis on the computerisation of the context sheets and plans, the generation of stratigraphic matrices from checked records and the assembly of contexts into preliminary groups. All contexts with pottery were scanned, spot-dated and the pottery partially recorded on a context-by-context basis. This information was used to assess the contexts in relation to their stratigraphic position and to assign dates.

A total of 1173 environmental samples were collected during the excavation and a sample of these were processed prior to the assessment phase. Further analysis of this material will form part of the full programme of post-excavation analysis.

The assessment phase included a thorough review of the original project design and the whole process formed the basis of the updated project design upon which future research will be based.

The original project objectives

The original project design, formulated to structure the second phase of excavation (1994/5), identified six areas of particular interest to which it was believed the analysis of the site could make a nationally important contribution:

• Processes of change: Briton into Roman.
• The Roman small town.
• Processes of change: The early medieval period.
• Saxon settlement.
• Artefact studies.
• Environmental studies.

During both the excavation and the assessment phases, it was realised that the potential of the site far exceeded the original expectations. While the Saxon settlement was somewhat smaller than originally anticipated, the Iron Age component was far larger and the articulation with the Roman site much greater. The combination of chronological depth, stratigraphic security, spatial extent and legibility offered an unusual opportunity to investigate a variety of topics of significance in Iron Age and Roman studies. The somewhat changed circumstances prompted the formulation of a set of revised research objectives designed to focus the post-excavation work more closely.

Revised research objectives

The research objectives were conceived as a two tier structure with the Revised General Objectives (RGO) being underpinned by a set of Revised Specific Objectives (RSO).

Revised General Objective 1

To develop an understanding of the morphology and function of the settlement from the Late Iron Age to late Roman period.

• Revised Specific Objective 1: To produce a study of all landscape features (buildings, enclosures, roads, open spaces) with the aim of understanding their form and development as part of the broader settlement.
• Revised Specific Objective 2: To place the landscape features within the spatial and chronological development of the settlement.
• Revised Specific Objective 3: To study key evidence for economic and social practices.
• Revised Specific Objective 4: To explore key indicators of economic and social activity and, against established models, to develop theories of land use, zonation, temporal change and political control.
• Revised Specific Objective 5: To study evidence for continuity and change in all aspects of the settlement’s activity and material culture and to explore the nature, date and speed of the transitional periods.

Revised General Objective 2: To place our understanding of the settlement in a regional context.

• Revised Specific Objective 6: To explore key indicators of economic, social and political status in comparison to other data within the region and thus to explore the role of Heybridge in the settlement hierarchy over time.
• Revised Specific Objective 7: To study the role of the settlement against various models of exchange.
• Revised Specific Objective 8: To investigate the topography of the site both locally and within the broader context of the coastline and river valleys. To suggest reasons for the location of the site.

Revised General Objective 3: Methodological research

• Revised Specific Objective 9: To explore methods of identifying and quantifying residuality using a range of stratigraphic and artefactual indicators.
• Revised Specific Objective 10: To use the phasing information to refine existing chronologies for aspects of the ceramic assemblage with particular reference to the coin evidence.

These revised objectives effectively replaced those originally specified in the original project design. Elements of the latter were subsumed into former as the focus of research was narrowed in the light of the results of the assessment phase.

The potential to address the revised research objectives

RGO 1 Settlement morphology and function

Due to the wide area excavated, questions of settlement morphology and function are amongst the largest of the tasks to be tackled by the project and offer perhaps the greatest potential of any of the research objectives. This is particularly the case for the late Iron Age and Roman periods and for the transition between the two. The Saxon period is less well represented, but the potential exists to study the transition between the late Roman and early Saxon phases of the site.

A number of types of evidence can be used to contribute to this set of objectives, including:

• The spatial organisation and structure of the settlement, including the planning, zonation and organisation of roads, enclosures, surfaced areas and buildings.
• Artefact assemblages will inform issues of the dating and function of areas and features and will, in particular, contribute to studies of the non-agricultural economy of the settlement.
• Environmental evidence will contribute to studies of land use and activity within the settlement.
• The animal bone assemblage will, in the absence of extensive charred plant remains, be crucial to the understanding of the agricultural economy of the site.

Running through these themes, issues of continuity and change are of particular significance, given the 500 year life of the settlement. The data recovered offer the opportunity to consider questions relating to these issues in some detail.

RGO 2 The settlement in its regional context

The assessment suggested that Heybridge enjoyed a status similar to a market village; a settlement with a limited administrative role, but a significant focus for local trade and exchange. Comparison of building types and densities, the presence of social foci such as temples and the nature of the transport infrastructure with other sites in the area (including Dunmow, Kelvedon, Chelmsford, Camulodunum and Colchester) will be used to assess this suggestion and to examine the position of the site within the region.

The considerable evidence of agricultural and manufacturing activities and the study of imported goods will be used to assess models of trade and exchange and the extent to which the site was involved in regional and wider exchange networks.

Although the estuarine location of the site does not seem to have played a major part in its history (the evidence for coastal links is sparse and the early theory that it was a port has been virtually abandoned), the place of the site in the wider landscape is still of some considerable interest. The position of the site at the head of the estuary and the end of the Chelmer valley, on marshy, marginal land requires explanation and this may be seen as an extension of the enquiry into the position of the settlement within the regional economic, political and social hierarchy.

RGO 3 Methodological research

In addition to the site-specific analysis, a number of material types and classes offer the opportunity to contribute to wider, non-site-specific, debates and research questions. Four specific areas of study have been isolated for particular consideration:

• Formulation of a new Late Iron Age - early Roman pottery typology
• Refinement of existing Roman pottery chronologies
• Study of latest Roman - Saxon transitional pottery assemblages
• The use of coins as dating evidence

A particular issue which was identified as of significance was that of residuality, a subject recently reviewed by the Urban Research Committee of the Council for British Archaeology (CBA). It appears from the assessment that the assemblages from Heybridge offer the opportunity to investigate aspects of the problems associated with residuality and site formation processes. Methods to be used will include the quantification of pottery by context according to the likelihood of its being contemporary with a deposit’s formation, indices of brokeness and completeness and the integration of stratigraphic, ceramic, faunal and other evidence.

Late Iron Age to early Roman ceramic typologies

Chronological issues are clearly of considerable significance to the interpretation of the Heybridge site. Essex has a number of typological frameworks for the Roman period, but those for the later Iron Age are site specific.

The pottery assemblages from Elms Farm are secure enough to;

• provide closed stratigraphic groups,
• allow the definition of the range of ceramics from different production centres present in a given group and to indicate what is significantly absent,
• to define local industries and establish the spatial and chronological relationships between them.

A large number of stratigraphic sequences spanning the later Iron Age and early Roman periods have been identified and artefact groups with close associations between imported goods and local ceramics exist throughout the site. Using these resources there is a real opportunity to contribute both to the analysis of the Elms Farm site itself and to the wider situation in Essex, as well as to contribute to regional analysis, by examining the ‘Romanisation’ of the pottery assemblage.

Late Roman dating

To date the only site with adequate, published, late Roman pottery sequences in Essex is the town of Chelmsford. Since the publication of this material, a number of studies have raised issues concerning the relationship between coin circulation, use and deposition and pottery. Elms Farm offers a number of late Roman sequences which can be used to evaluate the Chelmsford material in the light of recent work.

Latest Roman pottery

A variety of types of associations exist in contexts with both Roman and Saxon sherds. In some cases these involve obvious residuality, but elsewhere situations exist in which a Final Roman assemblage can be defined. Given the intensity of recent discussions concerning the nature and role of material culture at the end of Roman Britain, the analysis and publication of material from Elms Farm is expected to make a substantial contribution to the national debate. It ought also to be possible to ask whether a steady ‘Saxonisation’ of the site’s pottery assemblage can be observed, comparable to the first-century ‘Romanisation’.

Coinage: Dating and beyond

The quality of the excellent ceramic sequences from Elms Farm is further enhanced by the close associations with coins, both Iron Age and Roman. These groups offer the opportunity to address fundamental questions concerning the circulation of coinage, patterns of coin loss, the fate of Iron Age coinage after AD 43 and to review the use of coins as dating evidence.

Integration with existing research

The Elms Farm Project has produced data which will contribute substantially to a number of ongoing research projects, notably the corpus being assembled for the Blackwater Estuary and the Chelmer Valley, the Hullbridge Survey and the Lower Blackwater Project. More generally it will contribute to the reassessment of earlier prehistoric pottery and to the ongoing debates over the nature of Roman ‘small towns’. It will also dovetail with recent work at Great Holts Farm and Downhouse Farm in central Essex.

Publication

The publication of a site of the scale of Elms Farm is clearly a significant undertaking. For this reason, while a major report is envisaged, a number of smaller, more focused ‘offshoot’ reports will be produced dealing with specific issues and placed in appropriate specialist publications. In addition an interim report will be placed in a forthcoming volume of Britannia and a popular publication is planned.

Methodology

The updated project design advocates the pursuit of a selective methodology in terms of the analysis of the various assemblages and bodies of data generated by the project. Each of the Revised Specific Objectives will be approached as a series of distinct, but linked, topics for which detailed stratigraphic, artefactual and/or ecofactual analyses are carried out on a question-specific basis.

In the following sections outlines of the proposed methodologies deemed appropriate for the various classes of data are presented.

Stratigraphic methodology

The analysis of the context data and the construction of the stratigraphic framework for the interpretation of the site has two principal aims. The first is to analyse the site specific data collected during the excavation, to enter it into the appropriate computer software (FoxPro and G-Sys), edit and collate it and use it to produce matrices and phased context groups suitable for use by the various specialists involved in the publication. Secondly, but forming part of this, is the question of residuality, which is deemed to be of prime importance to all specialists. This will be addressed as a priority using phasing information and consideration of deposit formation processes, in conjunction with data from the ceramic studies.

A third element in the stratigraphic analysis will focus on the effects of the excavation strategy on the nature of the evidence recovered and will attempt to account for any biases revealed.

In addition to the basic work of producing, collating and editing the stratigraphic record, time will also be allocated for dealing with the stratigraphic dimensions of the various Revised General and Revised Specific Objectives.

Artefactual methodologies

Analytical methods

The statistical technique of correspondence analysis will be used to examine the distribution of different functional categories of artefact across the site as a means of examining the evidence for the zoning of activities. The technique will be applied selectively to the larger groups of objects and the programme of analysis will take place late in the sequence, once sufficient supporting data have been accumulated.

Environmental methodologies

Soil samples

The programme of environmental analysis using soil samples collected during the excavation has been completed to the assessment stage and those samples requiring further analysis have been isolated. Some 400 bags of soil remain which are of no environmental interest. These are being sieved to recover fish bone, animal bone and artefacts. Approximately thirty samples will be retained for chemical analysis.

Animal bone

The animal bone assemblage weighs 1,100 kg and is estimated to consist of some 5,500 countable specimens. The assemblage is strongly dominated by teeth and has been affected heavily by butchery. In addition to counting the bones using a diagnostic zone system, those bones which might otherwise be considered ‘uncountable’ will also be considered. Traces of butchery, including hook-damaged scapulae, chopped long bones and other characteristic traces will be noted.

The animal bone assemblage may have been seriously affected by residuality and work on the detailed recording of the material can only begin once this problem has been tackled using ceramic data. It is probable that contexts with more than 10% ceramic residuality will be excluded from the programme of analysis.

The wider implications of the animal bone study will involve the study of trade and the exploitation of the hinterland, the agricultural economy of the settlement and the nature of the local farming practices. Comparison with results from other sites will help set the settlement into its regional context.

Human bone

A very small assemblage of human bone was recovered from some 78 contexts on the site. It has no significant demographic potential and it is intended that analysis will focus on pyre and post-pyre technology and taphonomy.

Insect remains

The insect assemblage from 33 samples will contribute in a significant way to the understanding of the degree of urbanisation within the settlement and will help to identify the general conditions and specific activities being undertaken within it. It is highly probable that the nature of the buildings occupying particular areas will be identifiable and that insights into land use, organisation and status will be gained (RSO 4 and 6).

Waterlogged plant macrofossils

The analysis of the plant macrofossils from Roman period wells and other waterlogged features will contribute to RGO 1 by providing data on the utilisation and/or processing of crop plants, the disposal of waste, the local vegetation and on land use.

Charred plant macrofossils

The charred plant macrofossils, consisting of 665 dated and processed samples, were recovered from a variety of contexts including pits, cremations and postholes. These will be analysed with a view to answering a similar range of questions to those considered in the case of waterlogged plant material.

Pollen

Analysis of the pollen samples taken during excavation will involve extensive collaboration with specialists in other types of environmental material in order to provide a broad context for interpretation.

Shell

The majority of the, surprisingly meagre, marine shell assemblage from the site is oyster and has, during the assessment, proved suitable for statistical analysis directed towards locating possible sources through the aggregation of the physical characteristics and morphology of the shells. This will contribute to the reconstruction of the patterns of interaction between the site and its hinterland and may contribute to studies of long distance trade.

Soil micromorphology

The soil assessment has demonstrated that the study of the soil thin sections and chemical samples taken during the excavation will yield information pertaining to animal husbandry during the Late Iron Age - early Roman transitional period and perhaps also concerning the industrial, domestic and ritual areas of the site. Possible areas of investigation include the use of dung as a fuel for industrial processes, the methods of building construction and maintenance of beaten earth floors.

The actual numbers of micromorphological samples taken during the excavation was relatively low, with the result that the coverage of the settlement is somewhat poor. In view of this, surplus environmental samples have been reviewed with the aim of employing methods of soil chemical analysis which might shed light on the patterns of land use across much of the site. Such a survey, complementing the results from geophysics and environmental analysis has the potential to add significantly to the mapping of activities across the site as a whole.

Wood

Studies of the wood are not only significant from the point of dendrochronology, but also for the study of carpentry and joinery techniques and well construction. Examination of the patterns of growth and age at felling is expected also to reveal information regarding woodland management and technology.

Scientific methodologies

Archaeomagnetism, dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating have all been applied in appropriate circumstances. The radiocarbon dating is expected to make a relatively minor contribution to the overall dating of the site and only a limited number of samples will be considered.

Conservation methodology

A range of standard techniques will be employed in the conservation of objects in order to render them suitable for specialist study and/or public display. Conservation work will also include the determination of technical characteristics, particularly in the case of the metalwork, and this will contribute to studies of craftsmanship and possibly to patterns of trade.

Other research will focus on the types of corrosion products found on copper alloy objects and will attempt to define the links between the corrosion products and the burial environment. This is intended to contribute to more general studies concerned with the interpretation and definition of archaeological sites.

The analysis of the painted wall plaster will involve the identification of the pigments, the ground on which they were painted and the backing material. Comparison with data from other sites will contribute to setting the Elms Farm settlement in its context.

Further fieldwork

Topography and watercourses

As part of the investigations into the possibility that the settlement at Heybridge was a port, cartographic evidence has been examined in an attempt to determine the pre-19th century drainage pattern. Comparison of the evidence derived from 18th century maps with that from palaeochannels located during the Elms Farm and earlier excavations suggested that a number of watercourses ceased to be active in the later Roman period, and that none of them would have been suitable for significant river traffic. A number of questions were raised concerning the post-medieval drainage pattern and its relationship to planned canals. Further work, in the form of auger surveys and the survey of intertidal exposures, will investigate both this question and the possibility that wooden structures on the south bank of the Chelmer might relate to an early ford.

Geophysical survey

Following the successful survey carried out in advance of excavation by Geophysical Surveys of Bradford, further survey work is proposed to add to the information of settlement morphology obtained during the excavation. Areas to the south and west of the excavated area, presently under pasture, are both particularly suitable for geophysical survey and hold the potential to contribute significantly to the understanding of the settlement as a whole. Two areas will be surveyed and the results interpreted in the light of the relationships found to exist between the results of the initial survey and the excavated, sub-surface, features. The results will be integrated with the G-Sys data to allow comparison and extrapolation with and from the results of the earlier survey and the excavation.

Revised General Objectives: an overview

The size, complexity and richness of the Elms Farm site offers an exceptional opportunity to move beyond the simple recording of remains and to offer detailed synthetic interpretations. The three principal Revised General Objectives (RGO), set out above, are intended to structure this process, with the Revised Specific Objectives (RSO) being used to organise key evidence and thematic discussions. It is intended that the results of the analysis will feed into internal papers summarising the RSO studies which will be circulated amongst the project team in order to generate feedback and discussion which will inform future work on individual Specific Objectives and help to focus integration of results.

RGO 1 Morphology and function of the settlement

The consideration of the first of the General Objectives (RGO 1) will begin with RSO 1, which involves the study of all settlement features in order to understand their form, function and development. The analysis will draw principally on the stratigraphic information, informed by the dating evidence supplied by the pottery and coin specialists. This will be supplemented by the results of the geophysical survey and the pre-excavation plans of areas subsequently unexcavated, which will extend the area to be considered beyond the excavated section of the site. Ceramic evidence will also contribute to a study of the changes in the form and function of buildings over time, as will other classes of finds (tile, daub, opus signinum, glass, nails). The analysis of artefact distribution, using G-Sys plots and correspondence analysis, will be used to explore these aspects of settlement morphology.

RSO 2, the study of the changes in the morphology of the settlement over its 500 year lifespan, will draw principally on the data stored in, and manipulated through the Geographical Information System package, G-Sys. The production of plans and plots showing the distribution of different artefact classes, their inter-relationships and links with structural and stratigraphic information will not only contribute to RSO 1 and 2, but will also underpin all subsequent analyses, providing a firm base upon which other interpretative structures can be built.

RSO 3, the exploration of social and economic practices, can best be seen as a series of inter-related studies around five basic topics:

• The exploitation of the landscape
• Craft production
• Exchange
• Social organisation and practice
• Religious practice

Each of these will benefit from an integrated consideration of each class of evidence and of the relationships between them, underpinned by the results of RSO 1 and RSO 2.

The key indicators of economic and social activity amongst the ‘small finds’ will be selected using the function categories, most of which include more than one type of material. Analysis of manufacturing techniques will illuminate aspects of craftsmanship and the study of waste products will, it is hoped, indicate the range of objects manufactured on the site.

The amphora assemblage is deemed to be of particular importance as an indicator of pre-conquest interaction with the Mediterranean world. The quantities present make the site one of national importance in the study of later Iron Age trade and exchange. The dating of the earliest amphorae on the site will involve not only the amphora sherds themselves, but also the associated pottery and coins. The use of amphorae and the extent to which the assemblage represents the results of consumption on-site will also be addressed. Initial indications, equating wine consumption with high status, suggest that the site declined from a major centre to a quasi-rural backwater. The amphorae and associated vessels may contribute to the chronology of this process.

Studies of the coinage will focus on coin use and the extent to which coinage deposited in ritual situations can be meaningfully interpreted in terms of economic activity.

The temple complex, which will be studied initially as part of RSO 1, will also be investigated from the point of view of ritual and religious practice, taking into account votive deposits (and their scarcity, a feature of the complex) and initial suggestions that the cult involved associations with water. Other studies of ritual practices will investigate the evidence for structured deposition and will involve the integration of stratigraphic data with that of artefact distribution and associations and taphonomy. The possible association between the breaking and burning of pots and Iron Age funerary practice will also be considered, although the small numbers of burials found on the site will not contribute greatly to this objective.

RSO 4 will draw together the information collated and assembled as part of RSO 3 and will set it in the context of the wider regional perspective. Comparison with sites such as Kelvedon, Chelmsford, Colchester and Braughing / Skeleton Green will facilitate the interpretation of the site broader terms and the extent to which the social and economic functions of the site were similar to those seen elsewhere.

Continuity and change, the major focus of RSO 5, will have been dealt with initially as part of RSO 1 and RSO 2. Consideration of the artefactual evidence will be used to explore the subtleties of these themes, with the integration of data from the stratigraphic record and from all the varieties of material culture being used to build up a multi-layered picture of the site over time.

The broad theme of Romanisation will be addressed in terms of changes in pottery types and culinary practices, and perhaps also dress, personal adornment, and hygiene. The intensive recording of the later Iron Age to early Roman assemblages will be particularly informative in this regard, and may be backed up by the chemical analysis of the tablewares. A similar theme will be pursued in the later phases of the settlement, with Germanic pottery being quantified to the same standards as the Roman in order to allow full comparison of the assemblages.

RGO 2 The settlement in its regional context

By pursuing comparative studies to arrive at a model for the functioning of the settlement in all its aspects (RSO 4), it will be possible to begin to consider the site beyond its immediate environs, RGO 2 will use the key evidence for status, as identified in RGO 1, to compare the site with others in the region in order to situate Heybridge within the local, regional settlement hierarchy. Subjects to be considered include;

• trade and exchange relations with the region and the wider world
• the port (although evidence for this is admitted to be very sparse)
• the social, religious and economic role of the settlement in relation to surrounding sites
• a military or official administrative presence (no evidence at all)

The first two issues will be addressed in the light of the very large literature on Iron Age and early Roman exchange systems and patterns of interaction (RSO 7). The extensive recording of the pottery is expected to provide useful documentation of the breadth and changes in the scale and scope of pottery imports. The aim will be to reconstruct the network of connections maintained by the inhabitants of the site and to document the ways in which these changed over time. Such a programme of study will link all categories of pottery, from the local grog-tempered types to the amphorae. Where appropriate, other finds categories (such as brooches and glass) will be included in this aspect of the research.

The topographic investigation of the site (RSO 8) will not only consider the position of the settlement in relation to the surrounding landscape, but will also consider the internal topography. Further fieldwork will contribute to this objective as will continued palaeoenvironmental work in the vicinity.

RGO 3 Methodological research

RSO 9, the study of residuality, underlies many other aspects of research on the site and is one of the priority areas. Although pottery lies at the core of the residuality study, all classes of evidence will be involved, and a consideration of the formation of the stratigraphic record will be one of the early tasks during the analytical phase.

While more -labour intensive methods (involving a search from cross-context sherd links) would not be possible within the available resourcing, it is hoped that a picture of deposit formation which permits an assessment of ceramic residuality can be developed, with which apparent residuality of other finds can be compared, within the stratigraphic framework. In addition to contributing to the understanding of the site itself, a review of the techniques employed will contribute to the wider development of methods of studying site formation processes and the issue of residuality.

RSO 10, the construction of chronological frameworks based upon pottery and coinage, will, like the study of formation processes, taphonomy and residuality, contribute both to the understanding of the site itself and also to the formulation of methodologies with a much wider applicability. This will involve collaborative studies which are expected to yield information of great significance for all aspects of the project.

Post-RGO work

Once the process of analysis has been completed and the various aspects of the analysis have been integrated, the information will be collated as part of the process of producing a draft publication. This will be a task of significant dimensions, and one with parameters which cannot be fully defined at present. The publication, the precise form of which has not yet been finalised, will be supported by a full archive, including written, drawn, photographic and electronic records.

Bibliography

Hill, J.D. 1995 Ritual and rubbish in the Iron Age of Wessex: a study on the formation of a specific archaeological record. British Archaeological Reports, British Series 242. BAR / Archaeopress.