CARBONISED PLANT REMAINS FROM THE SAXON SITE AT MORRISON HALL, HARTLEPOOL, CLEVELAND.
Author(s): J P Huntley
Excavations at the Hartlepool Morrison Hall site (HMH 87) uncovered a series of post holes and negative features dated to the Saxon and Medieval periods. The site was dry and therefore only carbonised preservation was expected. Bulk sampling, followed by manual floatation, produced limited evidence for usage of crops - principally bread wheat but with some barley, oats and peas. Arrhenatherum tubers and wild radish fragments could have been food sources although could, equally, have been part of the local weedy vegetation. Few other ruderals were represented. Heather charcoal indicated that some plant communities from further afield were being exploited. Too few remains were present to offer an archaeological interpretation. The plant material indicates simply what was being used in the near vicinity. Although the results were somewhat disappointing they are a valuable addition to an otherwise very sparse dataset from this period, in the north of England.
- Report Number:
- 52/1990
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 6
- Keywords:
- Plant Remains