SPONG HILL, NORTH ELMHAM, NORFOLK: PLANT REMAINS FROM IRON AGE, ROMAN AND ANGLO-SAXON CONTEXTS (1972-84).
Author(s): P Murphy
This report includes material collected up to the end ofthe 1984 season, and replaces earlier A.M. Lab. Report Nos. 2514, 2844, 3332. Early prehistoric phases at the site are to be published in a separate volume and plant remains from Mesolithic-Bronze Age Contexts are discussed in an earlier report (A.M. Lab. No. 4859). Iron Age contexts produced only a scatter of carbonised cereal remains including Triticum spelta and Hordeum vulgare, probably dispersed from the main focus of settlement outside the excavated area. Some larger ass-emblages of spelt and barley came from Roman contexts implying nearby crop processing. Other Roman crops identified are Triticum cf. aestivum, Triticum cf. dicoccum , Avena sp. and Linum sp. Saxon domestic contexts produced Hordeum sp., Avena sp., Vicia faba varminor, Corylus avellana and Prunus spinosa. Impressionsof cereals on Anglo-Saxon cremation urns were mostly of barley with some bread, wheat, rye and oats: this is believed to reflect the use of barley as a whole grain rather than meal or flour. The cremations themselves contained some carbonised cereals and hazel-nuts, possibly food offerings to the dead, and charcoals.
- Report Number:
- 39/1986
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 19
- Keywords:
- Plant Remains
