Further, more detailed, work can be carried out on these assemblages. The condition of the animal bone in the samples, and that hand excavated, may give a clue as to whether it is in a primary context or derived from earlier deposits. This is particularly relevant to the Grubenhäuser fills. A more detailed catalogue of the animal bone from the samples and that excavated by hand may allow more confident conclusions concerning possible changes in husbandry between the Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon periods. The proportion of the Anglo-Saxon and Iron Age pottery in Trench AA is important for the consideration of the contemporaneity of the finds from the Grubenhäuser fills.
The identification of the charred plant remains has only been superficial for this report. A more detailed analysis will yield a little more information, and radiocarbon dating of the identified spelt wheat from the Grubenhäuser fills may be necessary to establish its Anglo-Saxon date beyond doubt. The flots from the small cremation samples still await study.
The palaeoenvironmental evidence might be extended by analysis of the pollen samples and quantification of the snail assemblages from the ditch column, but the latter are numerically small and may not advance the interpretations given here significantly.
I should like to thank Jez Dubber and Alison Foster for the sample washing and processing. Andrea Snelling identified the charred seed remains noted, although these data are not comprehensive.
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URL: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue27/2/appendix2.5.html
Last updated: Wed Nov 11 2009