Roman eviction notice?

The view from the hill

A presentation on the Waddon Hill project was given on the 26th at Beaminster Museum by the Senior Archaeologist at Bournemouth University. What we know of the site is that it was a Roman barracks for infantry and cavalry not long after the invasion and that no evidence was found during the excavations of the 1960s to suggest that there was an Iron Age hillfort before that. However, it was shown that there is a bank that hugs the contours of part of the hill. As is well known the Roman army built their fortifications in straight lines and occupied strongholds of any tribe they wished to subdue and it would be unusual for them to occupy Waddon Hill as a 'virgin' site, so this may be the first evidence that the hill was already used and then converted for their use. 

Part of the project was to undertake some geophysical surveying (see the previous post on Waddon Hill) and that was carried out. It is now hoped to dig some test pits to see if any new information can be found about the Roman occupation and any further evidence for Iron Age use. DDCAG are going to be part of this investigation in 2025, so keep looking in for more news on this important site.    

   

The 5m square test trench has proved very fruitful. Ditch features and Early Medieval dating evidence has been produced and the evidence suggests that the ditches bordering the house platforms have been changed and enlarged over time, hence why the geophysics results for the ditch looked 'fuzzy'. 

In March 2025 we will open a 10m square trench and the archaeology will be much easier to see. We are all looking forward to it. Thanks to all the hard working volunteers that braved the horrible conditions.     

 

A Ditch in Time...

 

Despite the terrible conditions our valiant volunteers managed to do some sterling work on the E-W ditch yesterday. We are nearly done digging the sections through the fill and then recording can be undertaken. Drawings and photos can be created and levels taken. Some more pottery was unearthed and these will allow us to date the feature, but I would be surprised if they were not medieval. 

The theory at the moment is that this ditch was created to produce enough earth to build up the ground so that houses could be constructed above the wet surrounding landscape. 

The geophysics shows that a S-N ditch butts up to the E-W ditch (the darker thick lines) and the houses would have been constructed in the lower left and lower right of this image. Like the rest of the DMV to the East they would have faced the holloway to the south. The area to the North is very boggy and it would probably have been so in the medieval period too.    

Our first ditch!

The drainage ditch has worked very well and although we had to bail-out the dug features 90% of the water had run off down the incline, as planned.  

Once we had then cleaned the base of the trench we could see the linear feature running west-east. We started cutting slots and now have some nice sections to draw along its length. Importantly, we have some pottery fragments that will allow us to date the ditch. 

Although the conditions are challenging we also found another feature, but it is amorphous, so we will have to investigate this one later. 

We are now hoping that the rain will break for a few days (for a few weeks?) and we can continue to investigate the lives of the medieval people that once lived on this spot.  

   

All going swimmingly...

As you can see, we had the swimming pool problem again. So we have dug a drainage trench in one corner that runs down to the nearby pond and...

 ...success! We can now plan to dig the features and expand the trench soon.   

 

Potastic!

The good news is that we have managed to find some nice sherds of pottery from our first foray into looking for the DMV. Mostly Early Medieval, but also what looks like a couple of BBW sherds too. The experts will undoubtedly tell us more. 

 

Jolly fine boating weather...

 

Although the weather has been very wet and the underlying material is clay, we have found that there is a linear feature cutting the pink clay material and may be a surviving part of the surrounding ditches that were dug to make the house platforms to keep them above the wetter ground. 

However, when we turned up on site last Wednesday the trench had turned into a swimming pool! The forecast is for more wet weather for the next several days, so we may have to wait until the following week to return to work.