Prehistoric Landscape to Roman Villa : Excavations at Beddington, Surrey, 1981-7

by Howell, Isca

• ISBN13: 9781901992564
• ISBN10: 190199256X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-15
• Publisher: David Brown Book Co

Summary

Excavations at Beddington have uncovered a long occupation sequence, which includes Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age fields, a Late Iron Age enclosed settlement and early Roman finds. A villa was established at the site in the late 2nd century AD and included a house, bathhouse and five other buildings, two of which were barns, although there was no direct evidence of crop or livestock production.

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. x
List of tables	p. xii
Summary	p. xiii
Acknowledgements	p. xiv
Introduction
Previous archaeological investigations on the site	p. 1
Circumstances of excavation	p. 1
Organisation of the report	p. 4
Reference to archival material	p. 5
Textual and graphical conventions	p. 5
Stratigraphical conventions	p. 5
Finds conventions	p. 5
Graphical conventions	p. 5
Chronological narrative
Geology and topography (period 1)	p. 7
Earlier prehistory of the upper Wandle valley (period 2)	p. 7
Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age landscape (period 3)	p. 10
Evidence of a field system	p. 10
Other features	p. 11
Period 3 discussion	p. 12
Iron Age settlement (period 4)	p. 12
Pre-settlement occupation	p. 12
The enclosure	p. 12
Ring-ditches	p. 14
Structures within the Iron Age settlement	p. 14
Features outside the enclosure	p. 16
Development of the settlement	p. 17
Period 4 discussion	p. 18
Early Roman fields (period 5)	p. 20
Field ditches	p. 20
Soil accumulation	p. 23
Burials	p. 23
Within the fields	p. 23
Cobbled surfaces	p. 24
Period 5 discussion	p. 25
The Roman villa (period 6)	p. 26
Yard surfaces	p. 26
Soil layers	p. 27
Evidence of earlier buildings	p. 27
The villa house (B1)	p. 28
The bathhouse (B2)	p. 28
Other villa complex buildings (B3, B4 and B5)	p. 31
The changing landscape	p. 32
Barns (B6 and B7)	p. 32
Other features	p. 35
Period 6 discussion	p. 35
Alterations to the villa (period 7)	p. 37
The villa house (B1)	p. 37
The bathhouse (B2)	p. 38
The surrounding landscape	p. 39
Barn (B8) and associated features	p. 40
Other features	p. 44
Period 7 discussion	p. 44
Abandonment of the villa and summary of post-Roman activity (period 8)	p. 45
The villa house (B1)	p. 45
The bathhouse (B2)	p. 46
The other buildings	p. 46
Pit [P66]	p. 47
The absence of Saxon features	p. 47
The medieval period	p. 47
The post-medieval period	p. 47
The upper Wandle valley in the later prehistoric and Roman periods
Introduction	p. 48
Late Bronze Age field systems	p. 48
Iron Age enclosures	p. 50
Agriculture in the Late Iron Age and early Roman period	p. 50
The Beddington villa and its environs	p. 51
Specialist appendices
Introduction	p. 54
Overview of accessioned Roman finds	p. 54
The building stone	p. 57
The stone objects	p. 58
Perforated hammerhead	p. 58
Quernstones	p. 58
Rubbing stones	p. 59
Sharpening stones	p. 59
Spindle whorls	p. 60
Miscellaneous	p. 60
The worked flint	p. 60
Retouched forms	p. 61
Flint axe	p. 61
The daub	p. 61
The tiles	p. 61
Tile fabrics	p. 61
Tile types	p. 62
Roller-stamped tile	p. 62
Chimney pot	p. 63
Tesserae	p. 63
The fired-clay objects	p. 63
Perforated clay slabs	p. 63
Briquetage	p. 64
Loom weights	p. 64
Fired-clay spindle whorls	p. 65
A lamp	p. 65
Other objects	p. 65
The prehistoric pottery	p. 66
The pottery fabrics	p. 66
The Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age pottery (period 3)	p. 68
The later Iron Age pottery (period 4)	p. 70
The Roman pottery	p. 72
The pottery fabrics	p. 72
The coarse wares	p. 72
A stamped mortarium	p. 76
A cremation urn	p. 76
The amphorae	p. 76
The samian ware	p. 76
The post-Roman pottery	p. 79
The mortar	p. 79
Analysis of the mortar	p. 80
The painted plaster	p. 80
Analysis of the painted plaster	p. 81
The glass	p. 82
Roman glass	p. 82
The iron objects	p. 83
The Bronze Age metalwork	p. 87
The Iron Age brooches	p. 88
The Roman brooches	p. 89
Other copper-alloy objects	p. 93
The lead objects	p. 96
The Late Iron Age coins	p. 97
The Roman coins	p. 98
The wood remains	p. 99
Introduction	p. 99
The samples	p. 99
Methodology	p. 99
Results	p. 100
Discussion	p. 100
The plant remains	p. 101
Introduction and methodology	p. 101
Description of the material and criteria for some of the identifications	p. 101
Analysis	p. 102
Results	p. 102
Discussion	p. 110
The animal bones	p. 113
Introduction	p. 113
Methodology	p. 114
Results	p. 114
The worked bone and antler objects	p. 116
Hairpins	p. 116
Bone needles	p. 117
Other objects	p. 117
Antler artefacts	p. 117
The leather	p. 119
One-piece shoe (carbatina)	p. 119
Nailed shoes	p. 119
The mollusc shells	p. 122
Marine molluscs	p. 122
Terrestrial molluscs	p. 122
The human bones	p. 123
French and German summaries	p. 124
Bibliography	p. 126
Index	p. 133
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