PLANT MACROFOSSILS FROM MUTLI- PERIOD EXCAVATIONS AT SLOUGH HOUSE FARM AND CHIGBOROUGH FARM NEAR HEYBRIDGE, ESSEX.
Author(s): P Murphy
During excavations at these sites on poorly-drained terrace gravels in 1988-9 large scale flotation produced carbonised plant material from dry features dating to all main periods between the Neolithic and medieval period and samples containing macrofossils preserved by waterlogging came from Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Saxon wells and "watering-holes". The results are thought to indicate small-scale crop production and foraging in the Neolithic followed by a predominently pastoral economy perhaps in a hedged landscape in the Bronze Age, though remains of cereals and flax were also recovered. Early-Middle Iron Age contexts produced only relatively sparse assemblages of sediments, from waterlogged macrofossil assemblages and from markedly increased densities of carbonised cereals, together with the development of a ditched field system, implies arable intensification around the 1st century AD. This seems to have been based largely on spelt probably with some flax growing. Two Saxon wells seem, from their macrofossil assemblages, to have been related to the watering of stock, though again cereals and flax were present.
- Report Number:
- 64/1991
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 43
- Keywords:
- Plant Remains
