Brading Roman Villa, Isle of Wight: Updated report on geophysical Surveys, March 1994, April 1995, February 2009 and February 2010

Author(s): Andy Payne

Further caesium magnetometer survey was undertaken in 2010 to investigate the wider setting of the Roman villa remains at Brading, Isle of Wight. This work broadened the previous fluxgate and caesium magnetometer surveys conducted at the site in stages between 1994 and 2009, which mapped an extensive complex of ditch-type anomalies, possibly defining field boundaries, enclosures and trackways in the wider landscape around the villa. The extension to the previous coverage indicates further ditches defining an additional rectilinear enclosure south of the main villa complex and a series of possible boundaries at the western extremity of the settlement area, flanking a possible access approach towards the villa from the east. Some of the activity identified by the magnetic surveys may relate to Iron Age settlement predating the development of the villa, although the 2009 survey also located a previously unknown group of ring-ditches west of the villa, suggestive of prehistoric funerary monuments or perhaps, a series of outlying Romano-British shrines.

Report Number:
89/2010
Series:
Research Department Reports
Pages:
12
Keywords:
Caesium Vapour Fluxgate Geophysical Survey Magnetometer Roman Settlement

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