Further Excavations At Langtoft. Lincolnshire www - Archaeology ...

pedestals. There were no examples of spacer-clips or stabilisers (Morris in Lane
2001:252-261).
The fabrics of the Langtoft briquetage match those recorded at Market Deeping,
although the troughs at Langtoft had thinner walls than those found at Market
Deeping. There are advantages and disadvantages to the thickness of the troughs;
thicker walls are good for repeated use whilst thinner walls had better heat
conductivity. The troughs were often broken and discarded, whereas the pedestals
were repeatedly used {ibid).
The structure on Glebe appeared to have been the main focus of salt production,
probably over a hearth or fire; although it appears that there was no specialised area,
only a direct heating system for evaporation. None of the features recorded appeared
to be furnaces, which would indicate a permanent production site, or at least one that
was returned to regularly. The troughs at this site could just have been placed over an
open fire which would have lain on top of the ground surface and would leave no
evidence in the archaeological record.
The few features that were re-sampled within the 1994 area produced further sherds of
pottery and briquetage. In addition, three previously unidentified features (F.1241
and F.1274 and pit F.1273) were excavated, also producing a briquetage assemblage.
A single slot in structure HL019 (recorded as F.1272) recovered further fragments of
briquetage.
A partial structure recorded in 1994 (Feature [HL280]) was completed in the present
area by gully (F.1278) with associated postholes (F.1279 & F.1281). To the
southwest of these features, a pit cluster (F.1283, F.1288, F.1289, F.1290 & F.1297)
was sampled and produced a large amount of briquetage material consisting of trough
fragments and production furniture such as pedestals.
The saltern site appeared to have been restricted to a discrete area, with only a few
features located to the west of the original investigation, and none to the south, north
or east. It would appear that the saltern site was limited to the immediate vicinity and
was probably a temporary site for the primary production of salt. This is supported by
the slight nature of the structiures, perhaps workshops, with evidence in the small
domestic assemblage of occupation rather than more permanent settlement. There
may be a link between this and the secondary production site recorded in an earlier
phase of investigation on the Meadow Lands (Webley 2007).
The faunal assemblage from the recent excavations added little additional information
on species identification and other artefactual elements. The low number of animal
bone recovered from both investigations also suggests that this was not a long term
settled site. Additionally, the pottery evidence was limited to a few sherds that were
associated with briquetage.
15