Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

Some members of the public have been introduced to
archaeology through the conducted walks around the villages'
and ancient monuments of, the linear parks in Milton Keynes
arranged as part of the series of Sunday afternoon walks
advertised as 'A Walk in the Park'.
Obviously, every Unit must. inform and teach the public
about its activities4'for they. are our paymasters,, but it
must also, in co-opetationwith'other :units,- disseminate, ai
a more academic leVel the results.of its-irivestigations,In
February 1979, in conjUnction With the .Department of,..Extre-
.
Mural Studies of Oxford. University, the _Unit organised'a
one-day conference at Stantonbuty :Campus on' AngIo-Saxon .
pottery in the South Midlands, at which every unit in .the
region spoke on and presented their pottery of that period.
It was a highly instructive exetcise.-
Visits to the AbbeY and. excavations 'by local and
regional groups and societies have continued throughout
the year, with reciprocal visits by a member of the Unit
to talk on their particular aspect,of:our, work: During
the summer months,. the Abbey has again been open to visitors
on Sunday afternoons, manned by members of the Unit, the
Ecology staff and the. Trust.- Access to the Chapel has
been limited by the restoration work-onthe pavement and.
wall paintings, which is almost complete, and So business
.
should be as usual by the spring.
EXCAVATION
CALDECOTTE, BOW BRICKHILL - M.R. Petchey'
Last season at Caldecotte we examined an area to the
north of that excavated in 1978, north of the Medieval moat.
The area was dominated by more 'ditches of the rectangular
field system of first and second century date located last
year. At the end of the site nearest the river, these
ditches were stratified below river flood levels, suggesting,
as at Stanton Low (excavated 1956-7 by Mrs M.U. Jones), that
the water level of the Ouse and its tributaries rose in the
late Roman period, in common with many other rivers St that
time.
In the centre of one of the enclosures was a rectangular
arrangement of shallow ditches containing pottery in the
local pre-Roman Iron Age fabrics, presumably part of an
earlier field system, and significantly on'the same alignment
as the later.
Of the Roman settlement two send-circular gullies 10m in
diameter defined the areas of two huts, 'of which they drained
the up-sli3pe side. No internal features of these buildings
were noted, nor was there any evidence of the structure
associated with a large hearth to the south-east of' the
huts. Also in this area a shallow structure of fired clay
may, on the evidence of associated slag, be a smelting hearth.
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