TVAS Occasional Papers
9 primary works
Book 29
Earlier Neolithic Pits and Late Iron Age Settlement at Littleworth Road, Benson, Oxfordshire
by Andy Taylor
Published 12 September 2018
Book 33
Book 38
Medieval Occupation Sites at Slough Cemetery, Arbour Vale School, Stoke Road, and Whitby Road, Slough
by Will Attard, Jo Pine, and Andy Taylor
Published 30 December 2019
Book 39
Book 40
Book 46
The fieldwork examined an extensive spread of archaeological deposits mostly assigned a Middle Bronze Age date. In particular, a large area of enclosed landscape (field system) has been closely dated to the Middle Bronze Age by a series of four radiocarbon dates suggesting it was in use from about 1400-1200 BC. The field system was unusually rich in finds of pottery and animal bone, the latter including horse, an animal likely to have been of special status at this time. A bronze side-loped spearhead was also recovered. The field system is thought to be indicative of the presence of an elite in society. Despite the volume of artefacts, deposits representing settlement activity were few. The extensive examination of a contiguous area has been of particular significance in understanding the nature, layout and chronology of the field system, a perspective unobtainable from smallscale interventions. A few Neolithic and Early Bronze Age pits were recorded along with a few clusters of Middle Bronze Age occupation features that predated the field system. Finally, a few ditches of Roman date were recorded along with a single large Anglo-Saxon pit or waterhole, radiocarbon dated to the 6th century AD. There was almost no correspondence of the features here with those excavated previously on the adjacent site to the south, in terms either of landscape organization or of chronology.
Book 47
This volume details the archaeological excavation in advance of a develoopment to the south of Reading in Berkshire, of a Middle to Late Iron settlement comprising a round house and adjacent boundaries. Two main phases of activity were represented, dating from the 4th to the 1st century BC. Only very small quantities of finds were recovered but the pottery chronology is supported by six radiocarbon dates. Faunal remains did not survive but an extensive programme of soil sampling revealed no charred arable remains, which might be taken to indicate a pastoral economy. Of some note are two ball-like objects of fired clay, plausibly interpreted as slingshots. A waterhole also thought to have been constructed in the Middle Iron Age contained preserved organic remains and remained in use into early Roman times (confirmed by a radiocarbon date, as there was very little Roman pottery on the site). The waterlogged remains from the fills of the waterhole indicated a locally open environment but with mature oak woodland nearby. As with many Middle to Late Iron Age rural settlements, the site was abandoned before Roman influecnce came to be widely felt. The presence here of securely dated Middle Iron Age fields associated with a settlement adds to a surprisingly small corpus of such evidence for the region.
Book 50
Neolithic Pits, A Bronze Age Ring Ditch and Late Bronze Age Occupation at Honingham, Norfolk
by Jo Pine
Published 6 January 2023
Archaeological excavations on two adjacent sites in Honingham are reported in this volume. A series of pits containing deliberately placed deposits seems to span the Middle to Late Neolithic, with both Peterborough ware and Grooved ware strongly represented, indicating an early and persistent ritual significance for the location. This was emphasized when a round barrow was constructed in the early Bronze Age (although there was no evidence of an accompanying burial). The barrow’s ring ditch, however, remained open to receive a human cremation burial in the middle Bronze Age and was probably also still visible in the late Bronze Age when the use of the area shifted to settlement. In the late Iron Age, or very early in the Roman period, field boundaries were laid out, at least one of which was replaced on a couple of occasions into the early and middle Roman period. The two sites produced a significant prehistoric pottery assemblage, although other finds, and environmental data, were sparse. The chronology is supported by a series of radiocarbon dates.
Book 51
Archaeological excavation in advance of quarrying revealed features ranging in date from Bronze Age to modern. The most significant results are three round barrows with an associated cremation cemetery, firmly dated to the 15th to 13th centuries BC, with a substantial pottery assemblage and a radiocarbon chronology. Other finds, however, were very few. The other significant phase of site use saw a rectilinear ditched enclosure with associated paddocks, representing a small Roman farmstead which came into being no earlier than the late 3rd century AD and continued into the 4th century before being abandoned. It is possible that the economy of the site was dominated by animal husbandry. This site is unusual in being founded relatively late in the period, when there is more evidence for sites being abandoned than for new foundations.