NHER 65674 (Monument record) - Roman, post-medieval and undated remains

January 2021. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site (Trenches 1-21).
The 21 trenches excavated at this location revealed evidence for Roman activity at and near this location, with small quantities of Roman pottery recovered from a range of features. The site also produced a sizable assemblage of Roman ceramic building material, including fragments identifiable as being from roof tiles, bricks and a single combed box flue tile. It is noted that some of the tile fragments are burnt or vitrified, suggesting they came from the heated area of a building.
Evidence for earlier activity was largely limited to a small, multi-period assemblage of prehistoric worked flints, comprising pieces of likely Mesolithic/Early Neolithic, Neolithic, Neolithic/Bronze Age and Bronze Age/Iron Age date. Most, if not all, of this material was though probably residual within later contexts. A single Iron Age pottery sherd was also recovered from an otherwise undated pit at the eastern edge of the site.
The features of probable Roman date lay primarily in the northern half of the site and included a north-east to south-west aligned ditch and at least two groups of pits and probable post-holes. One pit is identified as a possible well, although this appears to be larger based on its rectangular shape, as it wasn't especially deep. Significant quantities of Roman material were also recovered from a large quarry pit or infilled pond (the fills of which produced no later material). A sample taken from this feature produced what was by far the most notable assemblage of plant macrofossils, being found to contained moderate amounts of charcoal and charred cereal grain, along with smaller numbers of charred seeds. Many of the specimens were unidentifiable, potentially due to burning at a very high temperature (which is also suggested by the presence of abundant fragments of black vitrified material). A clay-lined possible oven or kiln was also most likely Roman om date, although this feature was subject to only minimal investigation during this phase of work. A patch of heat-reddened ground identified close to another group of Roman features potentially represented the remnants of a similar feature. A number of other ditches and discrete features that produced small quantities of Roman pottery and/or ceramic building material were also potentially associated within this phase of activity. The pottery assemblage suggests these remains were associated with activity during the mid- to late Roman period. Other finds recovered from features of likely Roman date included a single piece of opus signinum (Roman concrete), a bone hairpin, iron nails, fragments of animal bone and oyster shells.
There was little evidence for later activity, the one feature of definite post-Roman date being a north-north-east to south-south-west aligned ditches associated with a former field boundary shown on the Banham tithe map (S1). A single post-medieval pottery sherd was recovered from this ditch, along a number of residual Roman finds.
Undated remains included a number of scattered ditches and possible pits, the majority of which lay in the southern and eastern parts of the site.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2021.10).
P. Watkins (HES), 9 June 2022.