Monument record BRG 128 - Roman Occupation on Land Adjacent to Primary School, Great Barton

Four trenches were excavated across the development area targeting the footprint of the proposed houses, garages and site access. A focus of Roman activity was identified with an assemblage of twenty-six sherds of Roman pottery, a single piece of fired clay, nine fragments of animal bone, a nail and a coin recovered from ditches and a pit. Results from environmental samples taken from features indicate that domestic, agricultural, and perhaps light industrial activities were taking place on site during the Roman period. Although the pottery assemblage can only be broadly dated to the Roman period due to a lack of diagnostic material, the discovery of a coin dating to Antoninus Pius (AD 138-161) suggests the activity on the site could be during the earlier part of the Roman period. Other finds included an Early-Middle Iron Age copper alloy bow brooch dating between c.450 - 300 BC and a single post-medieval clay pipe stem recovered from the topsoil (S1).