PREVIOUS   NEXT   CONTENTS   ISSUE   HOME 

Road 3 - Period 4

As noted in Period 3, the latest surviving surfaces of Road 3 are only broadly dated from the 2nd century or later. As the road most probably continues in use throughout the mid-Roman period, it is likely that at least some of the silt accumulations that overlie it (and are included in the Period 3B discussion), date to Period 4 and beyond. That there is no evidence for any later maintenance of this road, even at its westernmost end, is perhaps surprising and it remains possible that later surfaces simply do not survive here. However, this apparent lack of maintenance is a common feature of the late roads across the site. Road 3 continues to be occasionally encroached upon by pits, particularly further east, presumably further demonstrating its declining status as a thoroughfare of the settlement.

Period summary view | Open areas (lower terrace) | Open areas (upper terrace)

Western end of Road 3

Unlike parallel Roads 4 and 5, the western end of Road 3, south of the temple precinct (OA23), is apparently not resurfaced during Period 4, but the continued presence of the substantial Period 3B fenceline (Structure 38) along the south side of the precinct suggests that this part of the road at least remains in use.

It seems likely that alongside the temple, Road 3 may be little more than a poorly defined track that receives little maintenance beyond the earlier 2nd century. Road-edge feature 5093 (Group 433) may either be a hollow that forms on the edge of the extant road surface or a fusion of several smaller features. Its finds assemblage includes oyster, tweezers, bone hairpin brooch fragment and a quantity of iron nails, which is very similar to those of the pits along the northern margins of the temple precinct.

East end of Road/track 3

Further east, Road/track 3 continues to be encroached upon with pit cluster 20308/20318, 21085 and 20225 (Group 711) and pit 11304 (Group 674) being positioned upon its line.


 PREVIOUS   NEXT   CONTENTS   ISSUE   HOME 

Internet Archaeology is an open access journal based in the Department of Archaeology, University of York. Except where otherwise noted, content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY) Unported licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that attribution to the author(s), the title of the work, the Internet Archaeology journal and the relevant URL/DOI are given.

Terms and Conditions | Legal Statements | Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy | Citing Internet Archaeology

Internet Archaeology content is preserved for the long term with the Archaeology Data Service. Help sustain and support open access publication by donating to our Open Access Archaeology Fund.