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Description: | PRN 64432
Undated cropmark enclosures and boundaries, visible on aerial photographs. {1}{2}
A magnetometer survey of this field was carried out in advance of the construction of a gas pipeline. The survey revealed two distinct linear anomalies which would be consistent with the presence of enclosures, and also other smaller anomalies which may represent pits. {3}
Five evaluation trenches were opened in March 2000. Trench 1 in the southern part of the site was archaeologically sterile. The most northerly trench contained a small gully which yielded a glass bead. Trenches 3 and 4 confirmed the presence of the features that had been identified on the aerial photographs and the decision was taken to proceed to area excavations.{4}{5}
Excavation revealed a number of features that could be separated into four broad phases. The third phase was concentrated in the southern half of the site. Several ditches and gullies appeared to define field boundaries on different alignments to those of Phases 1 and 2, but they do not all fit a consistent pattern and it may be better to regard these as belonging to several sub-phases. The alignments were generally northeast to southwest, with the artefactual evidence suggesting that occupation of the site was more-or-less continuous, so this re-alignment may indicate that there was an organised re-allocation of land probably in the early part of the second century AD. Some of the small Iron Age enclsoure ditches may have gone out of use by this time, but the larger ditches are likely to have been still open, abandoned only when the area was incorporated into a more widely managed landscape that utilised larger arable fields during the Roman period. The re-alignment of the field system coincided with the digging of several large pits. None of the features appeared to have been shored or lined and would have been susceptible to collapse in the waterlogged ground, so these were probably short lived features. This suggests a use as either for water supply or drainage.{3}{4} | Subjects: | General Archaeology | Temporal: | 100 - 300 | Source: | Lincolnshire County Council | Identifier: | http://www.lincstothepast.com/Records/Re... | Go to resource |
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