Record Details
| NHER Number: | 32584 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | Roman defensive ditches and undated features |
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Summary
A watching brief maintained during the excavation of a service trench to the south of Venta Icenorum Roman town (NHER 9786) recorded details of the triple defensive ditch outside the town previously noted on aerial photographs. Four ditches were encountered; the fourth intermediate ditch had not been picked up on the aerial photographs. The upper fills of these ditches were investigated and the Roman pottery found within them suggests they were infilled in the 2nd century AD. The cropmarks of this section of the triple-ditch system is now recorded under NHER 52202, see also NHER 52201 for overall discussion of site.
Images - none
Location
| Grid Reference: | TG 2319 0310 |
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| Map Sheet: | TG20SW |
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| Parish: | CAISTOR ST EDMUND, SOUTH NORFOLK, NORFOLK |
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Full description
March 1997. Watching Brief.
Observation of pipe and electricity trench.
According to (S1) where the line of this trench crossed the previously recognised 'triple ditch' cropmark (variously assigned an Iron Age or Roman date and now recorded separately as NHER 52202), the ditches were recognised and Roman sherds were found. K. Penn (NAU) believes this indicates the ditches are part of the Roman town plan.
The Roman date of these ditches is confirmed in (S2), which also notes a previously unknown fourth ditch. The finds recovered from the ditches included:
1 undatable prehistoric flint retouched flake.
1 Mesolithic/Early Neolithic flint notched blade.
1 ?Iron Age pottery sherd.
34 Roman pottery sherds, 18 tile fragments (including 1 tegula), 1 iron ?carpenter's tool, 1 iron/copper alloy stud and 2 iron nails.
3 undated burnt animal bone fragments.
Features identified to the south of these ditches included an undated pit and a ditch believed to have been a precursor of an adjacent fence.
The results of this work was also summarised in (S3).
E. Rose (NLA), 29 April 1997 and 26 January 1999. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 15 July 2018.
March 2009. Norfolk NMP.
The cropmarks of this section of the triple-ditch system is now recorded under NHER 52202, see also NHER 52201 for overall discussion of site.
S. Horlock (NMP), 24 March 2009.
Monument Types
- DITCH (Unknown date)
- PIT (Unknown date)
- FINDSPOT (Prehistoric - 1000000 BC to 42 AD)
- FINDSPOT (Early Mesolithic to Early Neolithic - 10000 BC to 3001 BC)
- FINDSPOT (Iron Age - 800 BC? to 42 AD?)
- DITCH (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
- FINDSPOT (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
- TOWN DEFENCES (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
- FINDSPOT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
Associated Finds
- ANIMAL REMAINS (Undated)
- BUILDING MATERIAL? (Unknown date)
- POT (Unknown date)
- RETOUCHED FLAKE (Lower Palaeolithic to Late Iron Age - 500000 BC to 42 AD)
- RETOUCHED BLADE (Early Mesolithic to Early Neolithic - 10000 BC to 3001 BC)
- POT (Iron Age - 800 BC? to 42 AD?)
- CHISEL? (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
- NAIL (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
- POT (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
- STUD (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
- TEGULA (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
- TILE (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
- TILE? (Roman - 43 AD? to 409 AD?)
Protected Status - none
Sources and further reading
| --- | Secondary File: Secondary File. |
| --- | Fiche: Exists. |
| <S1> | Unpublished Report: Penn, K. 1997. Caistor St Edmund 32584 Interim Report. |
| <S2> | Unpublished Contractor Report: Penn, K. 1999. Report on a Watching Brief at Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk (Venta Icenorum). Norfolk Archaeological Unit. 261. |
| <S3> | Article in Serial: Gurney, D. and Penn, K. (eds). 1998. Excavations and Surveys in Norfolk 1997. Norfolk Archaeology. Vol XLIII Pt I pp 193-210. p 195. |
Related records - none
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