Overview

This volume presents the results of the first 10 years of archaeological investigation at Wellington Quarry, Herefordshire. During this time a regionally unique archaeological and palaeoenvironmental sequence was recorded covering nearly 8000 years of interrelated human activity and landscape change in the Lower Lugg Valley. Starting with use by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, the heavily wooded floodplain witnessed periods of sporadic occupation and activity throughout early prehistory. A mid 4th millennium BC pit group provided a detailed insight into a wide range of seasonally based activities, while later funerary deposits included a wealthy Beaker burial. From the start of the 2nd millennium BC, an increasingly open and cleared landscape existed beyond the floodplain, on which activity was evidenced by occasional finds from former watercourses. Ritual deposition of human remains and artefacts in the later prehistoric period included a rare Iron Age double inhumation, though by this time a more settled and farmed landscape had emerged. By the 2nd century AD, a streamside settlement had been established. Expansion and intensification of this settlement led to the construction, by the 4th century, of one or more well-appointed stone buildings indicating that at least some of the inhabitants lived a highly Romanised lifestyle, rare on rural sites in this region. The settlement was abandoned by the late 4th to early 5th century but, until at least the 12th to 14th centuries, arable cultivation continued. During the post-medieval period there was a shift towards an enclosed landscape of pasture and meadow, a pattern maintained until the onset of mineral extraction in the 1980s.

Full Product Details

Author:   Robin Jackson ,  Darren Miller
Publisher:   Oxbow Books
Imprint:   Oxbow Books
Volume:   No. 1
Dimensions:   Width: 21.00cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 29.70cm
Weight:   0.998kg
ISBN:  

9781842173664

ISBN 10:   1842173669
Pages:   208
Publication Date:   15 March 2011
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Part 1. Introduction 1. Background 2. Location 3. Historical and archaeological context 4. Project history 5. Aims 6. Fieldwork methodology 7. Fieldwork and management approaches: future directions 8. Post-excavation analysis 9. The archive Part 2. Dating , landscape and environment 10. The scientific dating programme (John Meadows, Alex Bayliss, Chris Bronk Ramsey, Gordon Cook and Robin Jackson) 11. Geology and drift 12. Alluvium and palaeochannels 13. Geoarchaeology (Richard Payne and David Jordan) 14. Prehistoric limewoods of Herefordshire: pollen and seeds from Wellington Quarry (James Greig) Part 3. Earlier prehistoric activity 15. Deposits 16. The Neolithic pottery (Alex Gibson) 17. Organic residue analysis (Robert Berstan and Richard P. Evershed) 18. The flaked stone (Peter S. Bellamy) 19. Microwear analysis (Randolph E. Donahue and Adrian A. Evans) 20. Other finds 21. Environment (Elizabeth Pearson) 22. Interpretation and discussion Part 4. Later prehistoric and Romano-British activity 23. Bronze Age activity 24. Iron Age deposits 25. Roman deposits 26. The Roman pottery (Laura Griffin) 27. Ceramic building material (Laura Griffin) 28. Other finds (Laura Griffin) 29. The cremated bone (Darlene Weston) 30. Environmental remains (Elizabeth Pearson) 31. Overview of Romano-British settlement and activity Part 5. Medieval and post-medieval activity 32. Medieval activity 33. Post-medieval and modern activity Part 6. Synthesis 34. Transition and change 35. Conclusions Appendices 1. Geoarchaeological observations by site area (Richard Payne) 2. Petrological analysis (Robert A. Ixer) 3. Skeletal inventory (Darlene Weston)

Reviews

Author Information

Robin Jackson is Senior Archaeological Project Manager at Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service with many years’ experience of designing and implementing archaeological fieldwork and research In recent years he has specialised in working with the mineral extraction industry and on large-scale infrastructure projects with particular research interests in prehistoric archaeology and river valley landscapes.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions