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Romano-British Settlement and Industry on the Wetlands of the Severn Estuary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Extract

A review of the post-glacial geology and geomorphology of the Severn Estuary provides a context for the description and evaluation of eight sites on the margins of the Severn upstream of the Rivers Avon and Wye where Romano-British occupation debris has been recovered. This evidence provides further confirmation of the extent of the reclamation and settlement of the wetlands of the Severn during the Roman period. In addition, all sites produced clear evidence of ironmaking, employing Forest of Dean ore, and one site produced indications of glassworking. In conjunction with a comparative study of the pottery assemblages from riverside and inland sites, the role of the river as a trade route is reviewed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1987

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References

Notes

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33 We are grateful to Annie Grant (University of Reading) for examining this collection.

34 Copeland, op. cit. (note 6).

35 The ceramic bead is of irregular shape and in a fine grey-brown fabric with traces of a possible brown slip, but of unknown age (greatest length 27 mm., greatest width 22 mm., greatest thickness mm., hole 9 mm. diameter). The other bead is of dark blue translucent glass with a marvered white paste zig-zag trail (fig. 11 no. 19A) (greatest diameter 15 mm., greatest width 7 mm., maximum diameter of hole 7 mm.). It is of Roman date and attributable to Group 5A of M. Guido, The Glass Beads of the Prehistoric and Roman Periods in Britain and Ireland, Soc. Antiq. London Res. Rep. 35 London, 1978).

36 Gloucester Rec. Off. D908, ‘The Towne and Mannor of Hull alias Hill in the County of Gloucester plotted for Edward Fust Esqr Lord of the said Towne and Mannor’, George Goode (1659).

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71 The fragments are registered at the City of Gloucester Museum and Art Gallery as A.25983 to A.25986 and A.26046 to A.26069.

72 No. A.26057, catalogued as a counter.

73 Nos. A.26043, A.26046, A.26054, A.26062, A.26063.

74 White glasses—nos. A.25983, A.26048, A.26052, A.26053, A.26064, A.26066, A.26069; coloured glasses—A.26049, A.26068.

75 Nos. A.26050, A.26058.

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83 Scott Garrett, op. cit. (note 7), 113–14, 177.

84 M. J. Watkins (Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery), pers. comm. 1985.

85 Registered as HWCM 378 2086.

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90 Registered as HWCM 378 2151/711.

91 Registered as HWCM 378 613/82,618/77 and 753/459–

92 See above, op. cit. (notes 60, 88).

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106 Ibid.

107 Ibid., fig. 3; Tooley, op. cit. (note 105).

108 See, for example, Allen, op. cit. (note 15).

109 There are now a number of quantified pottery reports from Gloucester where the wares we are concerned with are represented by varying quantities. Rather than average data quantified in different ways from assemblages of disparate sizes, we have choosen to present in fig. 20 the proportions from the large dark loam deposit containing mostly fourth-century pottery from Berkeley Street, in J. R. Timby, in H. R. Hurst, Excavations in Berkeley Street, Gloucester (in preparation). The proportions of BBi, Severn Valley ware and the micaceous Gloucester TF 5 are actually lower than in the smaller assemblages reported by C. Ireland, in C. Heighway, op. cit. (note 44), 96–9, and by Vince, A. G. and Goudge, C. E., in Heighway, C. and Garrod, P., ‘Excavations at nos 1 and 30 Westgate Street: the Roman levels’, Britannia, xi (1980), 95–7Google Scholar.

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111 J. R. Timby, in P. Ellis, ‘Excavations at Sea Mills, Bristol, between 1965 and 1968’, Trans. Bristol & Gloucestershire Arch. Soc. (forthcoming); cf. Bennett, J., Sea Mills: the Roman Town of Abonae, Excavations at Nazareth House 1972, City Bristol Mus. & Art Gallery Monograph 3 (1985), 40Google Scholar; Allen and Fulford, op. cit. (note 5).

112 See above, op. cit. (note 109).

113 Timby, op. cit. (note 111).

114 J. R. Timby, pers. comm. 1986; Allen and Fulford, op. cit. (note 5).

115 Timby, op. cit. (note 111).

116 Allen and Fulford, op. cit. (note 5).

117 See above, op. cit. (note 109).

118 Keely, J., in McWhirr, A., Houses in Roman Cirencester, Cirencester Excavations III, Cirencester Excavations Comm. (Cirencester, 1968), 118Google Scholar, table 27; Green, S. and Young, C., in Cunliffe, B. and Davenport, P., The Temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath, I, Oxford Univ. Comm. Arch. Monograph ser. 7 (Oxford, 1985), 143–4, 158–9Google Scholar.

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