CBA SMA\SMA 1983.PDF - Council for British Archaeology

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the second phase at Caldecotte might suggest the continuance of a
religious function into the 1st century on the site.
The area around the Woburn Sands heights was obviously a
central place in the late Iron Age: the hill fort at Danesborough is
enough to suggest that. The Romans were reacting to this centrality
when they built their fort on the site that later became the town of
Magiovinium. It is therefore not entirely surprising, perhaps, that
a religious centre should be found to accompany the political and
military one.
Finally let us spare a thought for Roy Loveday of Leicester.
For some time he has been working on Neolithic mortuary enclosures -
most of which are identified from air photographs. The Caldecotte
enclosure fitted neatly into his scheme. Unfortunately it is several
thousand years too late, but its cropmark is undistinguishable in form
from the earlier type. How many others are there like it? Poor Roy's
ideas have got to change radically, and his thesis looks like taking
longer than ever to complete!
STANTONBURY VILLA EXCAVATION - R.J. Zeepvat
The final season of the Roman site on Stantonbury Campus
playing fields took place in July. On this occasion the work was
carried out totally by the Unit, as it was not possible to programme
the excavation at a time when the school was able to participate, as
in 1981. This is not to say that the Campus did not assist in some way
with the excavation: were it not for the use of their water supply and
the groundsman's hose, digging on the hard, clay subsoil would have been
a very laborious, painful task!
Attention this season was concentrated on the remaining unexcavated
areas available within the site limits. Accordingly, a 10m
wide strip was opened to the east of the 1981 site, taking in the
strip of hitherto untouched ground between the excavation and the
playing field. A second strip, 15m wide, to the south of the 1981
excavation was also cleared. This latter area had been stripped in
1975, but not examined. In all an area of about 900m2 was excavated
this season. See plan, Fig. 15.
Starting at the north end of the site, one of the first
discoveries of the excavation was an extensive yard area of packed
limestone rubble. The full extent of this was not discovered, though
its north edge may have been close to the northern limit of excavation.
The yard was dated to the 4th century.
To the south of this area were disjointed lengths of curved
stone walling, which resolved themselves into two circular structures
(buildings 3 and 4) each about 15m in diameter. Building 3, dated to
the 2nd century, was cut by Building 4, which, by association with
the yard surface, probably dated from the 4th century. No other
structural features were found in association with these buildings,
except for two stone packed postholes adjacent to the inner face of
Building 3. The area of masonry containing a drain, though in an
area covered by both structures, does not seem to belong to either,
though a 4th century coin was found in association with it. All of