8. SOUTH-WESTERN COUNTIES

• Published in: Britannia (Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies) 2019-11, Vol.50, p.447-452
• Main Author: Salvatore, John P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Archaeology; Cemeteries; Ceramics; Corn; Human remains; Iron Age; Roman Britain in 2018; Romano-British
• ISSN: 0068-113X; 1753-5352
• DOI: 10.1017/S0068113X19000424

Evidence for terracing of the land prior to construction of the buildings was identified and field boundary ditches, trackways and isolated refuse pits were also present.76 (4) Shurdington, Farm Lane (SO 9357 1945): an excavation and watching-brief carried out over an area of 13.9 ha uncovered the remains of a farming settlement which was established during the later Iron Age and continued in use until the middle Roman period. A sub-rectangular enclosure in the north-western part of the site had a funerary function and was associated with three inhumation graves and two cremation burials, as well as two pottery vessels which had been deliberately buried in shallow pits.77 SOMERSET (1) High Ham, Low Ham Roman villa (ST 4364 2887): caesium magnetometer and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys investigated the extent and state of preservation of the scheduled villa site (NHL No. 1006192) and its environs. DEVON (1) Ipplepen, Dainton Elms Cross (SX 8400 6600): open area excavation explored the southern part of the site c. 160 m east of the 2017 trenches.80 Parts of three ditched enclosures, first identified through geophysics, were exposed revealing occupation extending from the middle–late Iron Age through to the fourth century a.d. Features included several roundhouse gullies, three wells and a cluster of east–west-oriented inhumations c. 150 m south of the cemetery of at least three rows of east–west-orientated graves excavated in 2014–15.81 A stratigraphically later grave, on a slightly different orientation, produced a radiocarbon date of cal. a.d. 434–650.