Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

Other features
To the west of the two buildings a number of ditches
were found, running for the most part along the hill slope,
in a north-south alignment. These were, for the most part,
shallow, and contained much of the pottery found on the
excavation. One of the smaller ditches (F1) contained a
hoard of 21 bronze coins, with a date range of AD 330-349.
Part of the terrace that had been cut into the 'slope
to accommodate Building I was also examined. Only the
central part survived, the north and south ends having
been cut into by plough furrows. The terrace was 5.5 metres
wide, with a steep bank 60cm high on its west side. Along
the foot of the bank a gulley (F2) had been cut to aid
drainage. The terrace appeared to have served as a
rubbish tip during the occupation of the site, as it yielded
quantities of domestic refuse. Some attempt had been made
to contain this by the construction of a rough dry-stone
wall, behind which a quantity of hillwash material had
subsequently accumulated, burying the domestic refuse.
In the area immediately east of Building-1,,part of
which.was surfaced with limestone Cobbling, was found a
keyhole-shaped pit, 2.8 metres in length, and 40cm in
depth (F3). The fill was of organic material, Containing
much bone and tile fragments. Although the shape of the
feature was reminiscent of an oven, there was no burning
either in the fill or in the limestone rubble lining, so
its function is indeterminate.
Conclusions
The site appears to represent a farmstead of the
third-fourth century AD with a substantial hnuse, built
in the Roman fashion, and at least one outbuilding. As
the site lies nearly 2km south of Bancroft Roman Villa,
excavated by the Unit between 1974-78,,it may be that
the farm at Wymbush was constructed and occupied by a
well-to-do native tenant of the owners of the Villa. It
is probable that similar, sites exist in the area, notably
at Stantonbury, about 3km to the notth-east of Wymbush.
A drawing showing my idea of what the building may
have looked like is shown in Fig. .
PENNYLANDS IRON AGE/SAXON SITE.'.-'
Williams
Observation of construction work on the Pennylands
grid square in May resulted in the discovery of an unknown
Iron Age and Saxon settlement at SP 862411. Aerial
reconnaissance and previous fieldwalking had not indicated
the presence of any archaeological remains in the area;
almost certainly a result of the abnormal depth of topsoil
(over a metre deep in places) preventing root penetration
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