Middle Iron Age, Late Iron Age and Roman Occupation at Hatch Farm, Winnersh, Reading, Berkshire

ISBN-13: 9781911228233 / Angielski / Miękka / 2017 / 77 str.

James McNicoll-Norbury;Steve Ford

Opis

This volume presents the results of archaeological investigations over a large area in advance of a major housing development in central Berkshire. Although, under the requirements of the development planning process, increasing attention is being paid to the archaeology of this middle part of the Thames valley, it remains less intensively and extensively explored than either areas upstream or further east.The excavation of one large, and several small, areas within an overall site of almost 50ha has revealed the presence of middle and late Iron Age and early Roman deposits in the form of field systems and a farmstead, with five round houses and a series of enclosures. Three small square enclosures are of uncertain function and date but may also be middle Iron Age. A reasonably large pottery assemblage is supported by a series of radiocarbon dates, but other artefacts and ecofacts were surprisingly sparse. The site seems to have been occupied from the 5th century BC until the 4th century AD, although it is unclear if this was more or less continuous, or episodic, but at least the Roman phases all appear to build directly upon one another with no obvious sign of discontinuity in layout. The inhabitants do not appear to have been wealthy at any point in this lengthy occupation, but the mere survival of the site for so long runs contrary to a regional trend, which sees few Late Iron Age, much less Middle Iron Age, sites, survive beyond the early Roman period.