WILTSHIRE
(1) Coate, Land off Marlborough Road (SU 18758 82626): excavation identified small enclosures and discrete features dating to the first century a.d. which pre-dated a Roman settlement comprised of enclosures, ring-ditches, boundary ditches, pits, post-holes, a stone surface and possible hearths or ovens. An urned cremation deposit was also identified. Pottery from the settlement spanned the first to fourth centuries, with a predominance of mid-first- to second-century material.Footnote 137
SWINDON
(1) Lotmead, Phase 1 (Site 5) Swindon Eastern Villages (SU 19760 85179): excavation revealed part of a prehistoric woodland environment which was extant at the time the Roman settlement at Wanborough (Durocornovium) was established. Over 100 tree-throw holes indicate felling and clearance, probably to obtain timber for construction and provide land for agriculture. Finds recovered from the artefactually rich upper fills included pottery ranging from the Bronze Age through to the fourth century, along with 34 late third- or early fourth-century coins. Roman features included a large pond, enclosures, pits, two inhumation graves and 31 cremation deposits as well as two ring-ditches, one of which enclosed a large sarsen stone.Footnote 138
DORSET
(1) Hinton St Mary (ST 786 162): research excavation took place at the scheduled site at Hinton St Mary Roman villaFootnote 139 following up on the evaluation work reported previously.Footnote 140 Three areas were excavated; this revealed that the room with the Chi-Rho mosaic (now housed at the British Museum) was not connected to other rooms on its south-west side. A separate rectangular building, c. 34 m long with a portico or corridor, was located some 8 m to the south-west of the mosaic room. A mosaic covered this building's northern end room floor (fig. 34), while the next room was provided with a hard mortar surface. There was no evidence for activity within the investigated areas before a.d. 300 and the excavation indicates that the buildings on the site were constructed c. 330–340, with occupation lasting until at least the end of the fourth century.Footnote 141 Initial post-excavation work has been completed, the results of which are available.Footnote 142
FIG. 34. Part of the mosaic within the separate rectangular building, scale 1 m. (Photo: Mike Luke © British Museum)
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL
For supplementary material for this article please visit https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X2300034X
