For several years the Archaeological Service has run a joint project with the University of Cambridge Faculty of Classics to provide training in magnetometry and topographical survey for students and archaeologists on arable land where evidence such as finds suggests a Roman settlement. The very positive results of these surveys, and of other geophysics surveys on Roman sites for management and research purposes, are summarised below. Full details about the surveys are available in the Historic Environment Record.
More information about geophysical survey methods can be found in this document on English Heritage's website: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/geophysical-investigation/
Stanstead
In summer 2006 a 7ha area was surveyed at Stanstead, near Long Melford, by Helen Woodhouse and Paul Johnson of the Faculty of Classics, as a training project with funding from the Roman Society. Roman finds had been recovered from the ploughsoil and reported to the Archaeological Service and in 1994 a small area of a building with flint walls had been recorded in a test trench. The site occupies a spur of land facing south-east and is on clay soil.
The survey produced evidence for extensive buildings and for elements of rectilinear enclosure systems. On the northern, higher, area a trapezoidal enclosure is around 80m by 90m. An area of probable structures around 30m by 50m occupies the north-west side of the enclosed area on the crest of the spur. In the western corner a double row of individual features, 20m long and 6m wide, is very likely to be the main post pits of a timber aisled building. A second area of clearly structural features lies at the south-east edge of the survey area almost 100m from the south-east side of the trapezoidal enclosure. A large, 60m x 20m, area of strong magnetic responses includes the area of the building recorded in 1994. A second area of high responses suggesting a rectilinear structure, about 15m by 30m, lies to the west, and further probable structures lie in between. The complexity of the data and the indications of multiple linear features, particularly in the northern half, suggest a multi-phase settlement with a complex series of buildings. The general layout looks typically Roman.
Hitcham
Geophysical survey of an area in Hitcham was commissioned by the Parish Council in 2005 as part of a lottery Local Heritage Initiative Project to investigate a site where Roman finds had been discovered over many years by the landowner’s family . Magnetometry, resistance and ground penetrating radar surveys were carried out by GSB Prospection Ltd, Bradford (the company who regularly do geophysics with Channel 4’s Time Team). The magnetometry shows two ditch lines, probably forming the side of a rectangular enclosure and possible building areas which were tested and confirmed by excavation in 2006.
Pictures of the fieldwalking and excavation of this site can also be found on the Local Heritage initiative website.
Wyverstone
This area of Roman finds was first identified by metal detector users who reported finds to Faye Minter as part of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Suffolk. The presence of building materials suggested that this was a villa site and so the field was chosen for the Faculty of Classics training project in 2007, directed by Helen Woodhouse with funding from the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History and from the Council for British Archaeology, East Anglia. The magnetometry identified a probable ditched enclosure, about 100m by 95m, with an entrance to the east. Inside the enclosure are 12 probable timber round houses, with diameters ranging from 8m to 23m. Although roundhouses are typically Iron Age in date recent excavations in East Anglia have shown that the tradition continues into the 1st or 2nd century under Roman rule. As the circles in the enclosure overlap they cannot all be contemporary. The surface finds from the field do include later Iron Age coins so it is likely the enclosure and some of the houses are pre-Roman but that settlement continues uninterrupted. A rectangular Roman building with flint footings, about 28m by 17m and perhaps including a hypocaust (underfloor heating system) was probably built later, to the north-east of the enclosure.
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| Magnetometer survey plot |
Interpretation |
For further information about any of these sites please contact
Jude Plouviez
Archaeological Service
9 - 10 The Churchyard
Shire Hall
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP33 1RX
Telephone: 01284 741235
Email: mailto:jude.plouviez@suffolk.gov.uk