Monument record BAA 035 - Later Prehistoric and Roman occupation evidence, Land at Donards, Badwell Ash

Evaluation trenching revealed an archaeological layer containing Late Iron Age-early Roman transitional type and Roman pottery sherds. Two post holes, one of which contained a sherd of Late Iron Age pottery, and a ditch terminus containing one sherd of Late Iron Age pottery and an assemblage of Neolithic-Early Bronze Age struck and worked flint were recorded. Any archaeology present on the rest of the site has been destroyed by a modern quarry pit, now infilled. Two main, distinct phases of occupation are present, the early Bronze Age to late Iron Age, represented by the post hole and gulley terminus, and the later phase from the late Iron Age to early Roman period, represented by the layer or palaeochannel, although a later date for some of the Roman sherds is possible. The datable finds give an indication of a hiatus of occupation at this location of perhaps several hundred years (S1, S3).

2017-2018: Two areas were excavated following the results of the evaluation.
The excavation revealed four distinct phases of occupation from the combined areas, 1 and 2. Prehistoric activity from (phase I) was noted from mainly spreads of colluvium containing some worked flints from the late Neolithic to the Bronze age; only one feature, a small pit appeared to belong to this period containing burnt flint. The late Iron age only appears as residual finds of pottery in later features belonging to the early Roman period. Early Roman activity (phase II) was present in both areas1 and 2, although a cross-over of the Iron Age and the early Roman periods must have occurred. The features from phase II (areas 1 and 2) were in the form of a boundary ditch and gulley, which displayed distinct boundaries that had been established here by the late 1st century A.D. The ovens display a level of food production, perhaps for a larger building with a good sized retinue of staff. The most significant of the phases was phase III, which includes the building, dating to the 2nd-3rd centuries. This appeared to be of a semi-cruck design with an open-ended area for driving carts into with the other end probably used for storage of grain and other crops. In phase IV, a complex of pits and one corn drier/oven were also recorded just north of the building. These features belong to the 3rd-4th centuries and may have occurred during and after the building went out of use. (S2)