Nina Crummy

Cet article décrit le développement d'un paysage préhistorique près de la rivière Nene à Grendon Lakes, en partie révélé dans les années 1970 et en partie pendant les fouilles de 1998 et 2001, dont on offre ici un compte-rendu complet. Deux phases majeures d'activité ...

The Clarence Street site lies c. 300m east of the Roman town defences in an area identified with Roman cemetery activity. Excavation revealed stratified archaeological deposits dating from the late 1st/early 2nd century to the medieval period. Early Roman activity included domestic and industrial components. An inhumation cemetery was established in the early 3rd century, and this site is located on its eastern boundary. A total of 91 graves were excavated. The cemetery was characterised by a consistent burial rite that involved west-east orientation of supine inhumations lacking grave goods, often in nailed timber coffins.

"Archaeological investigations during underpinning works at 17 Dean's Yard, Westminster (Westminster School) revealed a deep sequence of medieval land-reclamation deposits overlying middle to Late Saxon alluvium and basal sand and gravel. The site lies within the area of the medieval Abbey precinct and also within the World Heritage Site.

The foundations of the present building were found to incorporate re-used stonework, possibly derived from earlier monastic buildings associated with Westminster Abbey close by to the north. The site was reclaimed from the peripheral marshy edge of Thorney Island in the High Medieval Period, though dumping to raise the ground level was undertaken as early as the mid-12th century. The discovery of a partial donkey skeleton in an alluvial deposit at the base of the stratigraphic sequence is of national and intemational significance, being the first Late Saxon example of this species found in the country to date. Documentary sources suggest that the cloister area was heavily damaged by fire in the late 13th century and rebuilt in the 14th under Abbot Litlyngton. 14th-century gothic stone mouldings were found in an early post-medieval demolition deposit."

Archaeological investigations were carried out in advance of development at GlaxoSmithKline, Ware, Hertfordshire between January and March 2003. The work revealed a concentration of Bronze Age struck and burnt flint underneath stratified Roman deposits. These included part of the Roman road of Ermine Street with associated silt build-up and debris. Flanking Ermine Street were Roman structural and occupational remains that comprised hearths and clay floors together with various gullies, pits and postholes and a number of inhumations of peri/neonates and infants. ‘Dark earth’ layers dating to the end of the Roman period covered these features.

A series of archaeological investigations on the crest of Temple Hill (NGR TQ 5495 7502), which overlooks the Darent marshes and the Thames estuary, have revealed the peripheral remains of an early to middle Iron Age settlement, a possible Roman hilltop shrine and part of an early Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery (mid fifth to late sixth/early seventh century; fifty-six graves, fifty-nine individuals).

The early to middle Iron Age features comprised over 400 pits or postholes, yielding struck and burnt flint, pottery sherds, burnt building materials, loomweights and animal bone. Located in the south of the site, these are probably the peripheral remains of a hillfort settlement located on the hilltop to the south. A large contemporary ditch excavated at East Hill, further to the south, may represent the southern boundary of this possible hillfort (Willson 2002, 47-48).

Roman remains comprised a timber post-built structure on an east/west axis. Beyond the end of the building were two pits containing a significant assemblage of votive Roman model iron tools (knives, cleaver, axe, reaping hook, latchlifter and awl), part of a horse harness, and smithing scrap. Several discrete pits and postholes were noted, and a small assemblage of abraded pottery was recovered. During the Roman period, the lower slopes of Temple Hill formed an extensive burial ground, with graves ranging from cremations to stone sarcophagi and gypsum-filled coffins.

The cemetery was organised in groups of contemporary west/east and south/north aligned graves. Graves were arranged in fairly orderly rows, with little accidental intercutting, suggesting that they may have had ephemeral markers. Three north-south aligned graves were located within ditched enclosures. One of these, situated within a penannular ditch, may have had a wooden post-built structure above it. Two possible cemetery boundary ditches were found, but the cemetery probably extends further to the north and east.

Although skeletal preservation was not good, graves were relatively undisturbed and contained skeletons and grave goods suggesting a generally poor but healthy population. The poor survival of human bone limited demographic analysis, but study of skeletal pathology indicated that the male population undertook heavy labour and the females had poor dental health; there was little evidence of trauma. Males were significantly taller than females. Juveniles were present in the cemetery, but generally had fewer grave goods than adults, with the exception of one juvenile who was buried with weapons within a ring ditch. Several wealthy females were present, as well as three individuals buried with infants.

Grave goods were well preserved, and comprise dress accessories, weapons and pottery accessory vessels, and other items including token knife and spear fragments and a bucket handle. Women were buried with copper-alloy shoulder brooches, finger rings and necklaces of silver slip-knot rings, amber, monochrome and polychrome glass and crystal beads were recovered, as well as a crystal ball mounted in a silver sling on a chatelaine. One ring-sword, ten spearheads and four shield bosses were also recovered in addition to belt buckles and knives. Grave goods do not mirror the Jutish styles seen elsewhere in the Darent Valley, but suggest a degree of Frankish influence, as well as possible Anglian and east Kentish contacts.

Summary.  This paper reviews late Roman ‘nail-cleaner strap-ends’, a group of objects first discussed by Hawkes and Dunning (1961). The precise function of these objects is unclear as their shape suggests use as toilet instruments but the split socket suggests that they were part of belt-fittings. We suggest a detailed typology and discuss the dating evidence and the spatial distribution of the type. Regardless of their precise function, it is argued in this paper that nail-cleaner strap-ends of this type are unique to late Roman Britain and thus represent a distinct regional type. The use of nail-cleaner strap-ends can be viewed in the context of gender associations, military status and religious beliefs.