{"title":"Oxford Archaeology East","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781907588143","title":"EAA 180: Salt-Winning on the Lyn","description":"Beneath the housing estates of Gaywood within the urban reach of modern King’s Lynn lies a former saltmarsh — Gaywood’s North Marsh — which once played an important role in the economic and physical development of this dynamic coastal and estuarine landscape. Focused on the eastern side of the Wash and to the north of an ancient inlet known as the Lyn, this marshland was rich in salt or ‘white gold’, gathered from the brine-saturated muds and processed using the post-Roman technique of sand-washing or sleeching. Often the only traces left behind of this once important coastal industry are the denuded hillocks or mounds representing the accumulated waste deposits associated with salt-winning, dozens of which have been mapped in this area. An opportunity to investigate several of these saltern mounds was prompted by the Lynnsport and Greenpark Avenue Primary School developments, leading to a three-year scheme of topographical survey, evaluation trenching and targeted excavation. \n\n Building on previous work by OA East at Marsh Lane, this volume provides a synthetic overview of the salt-making evidence utilising a suite of scientific techniques underpinned by historical research and Bayesian modelling to reconstruct the saltmarsh environment and how this changed over time. One of the key results has been firmly to establish that the sand-washing method was in use on the east coast of England as early as the Middle Saxon period (8th to 9th century), continuing into the medieval period and beyond in some places. A possible association with the Middle Saxon ‘productive’ site at Bawsey is explored, as is the more definite connection with the East Anglian bishops and bishops of Norwich, who once owned this land. Linked to this are the provision of labour, methods of transport and access to fuel. The contribution of salt-working to the economy, notably trade, is assessed as is the impact that this industrial scale of salt production had on the physical environment which ultimately led to piecemeal reclamation and the development of valuable tracts of grazing land. By the 12th century, salt-winning on Gaywood’s North Marsh was already in decline and by the 13th century its death knell was no doubt sounded by the diversion of the River Great Ouse into the Lyn: the fossilised salt-making landscape being recorded by the Gaywood Dragge survey of 1487\\. This narrative is further enhanced by comparison with similar records for sand-washing on the near continent, and a reconsideration of the evidence from the Lincolnshire side of the Wash.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56308385907061,"sku":"9781907588143","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781907588143_3c81140e-9fa9-4dd5-9fa7-2506d505dee3.jpg?v=1786029637"},{"product_id":"9781907588136","title":"EAA 178: Hinxton, Cambridgeshire: Part I","description":"Extensive archaeological investigations were undertaken over two decades in Hinxton, south Cambridgeshire by OA East on behalf of the Wellcome Trust. The excavated areas lay in the Cam valley, a ‘borderland zone’ crossed by Icknield Way; the ridgeway route and the River Cam providing natural corridors of movement and communication.\n\n \n\nHinxton’s post-glacial valley landscape of indigenous woodland, streams and seasonally flooded pools attracted Palaeolithic and Mesolithic communities to the area. Fills of one pool yielded a Terminal Palaeolithic ‘Long\/Bruised Blade’ assemblage of national significance.\n\n \n\nTree clearance to permit exploitation of the fertile valley sides began in the Early Neolithic. The increasingly ‘ritual’ or ceremonial significance of the landscape is indicated by a Late Neolithic\/Early Bronze Age shaft containing a substantial assemblage of worked flint and Beaker pottery. During the later prehistoric and Early Roman periods, two square enclosures – the largest related to mortuary practices – were followed by a small timber shrine. Burial of selected individuals, both in graves and as disarticulated remains, occurred sporadically throughout prehistory.\n\n \n\nAgricultural exploitation of the valley seems to have been almost continuous from the Early Neolithic until the Middle Roman period, after which the land lay largely fallow. Conquest period large corrals linked to major trackways potentially demonstrate stock management on a scale commensurate with supplying the nearby fort and Roman town at Great Chesterford.\n\n \n\nThe immediate landscape was not resettled until the Anglo-Saxon period. Post-Roman activity at Hinxton is the subject of a companion volume (Part II).","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313117868405,"sku":"9781907588136","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781907588136_b0bbd525-3fdc-413f-b5b3-6fade936ada6.jpg?v=1786029636"},{"product_id":"broughton-milton-keynes-buckinghamshire","title":"Broughton, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire","description":"Extensive excavations near the village of Broughton, which lies on the outskirts of Milton Keynes, revealed the fluctuating fortunes of neighbouring settlements from the Iron Age to the medieval period. A middle Iron Age ‘hamlet’ was succeeded in the 1st century BC by various farmsteads which were at their height in the early Roman period. Associated with these were richly furnished cremation cemeteries of Aylesford(-Swarling) type, with burial continuing into the Romano-British period. The cemeteries provide the largest group of such burials yet found in Buckinghamshire and reflect the position of Broughton within the territory of the Catuvellauni. Cremation burial ceased in the mid 2nd century and two of the farmsteads were abandoned soon afterwards. The main settlement continued to develop during the late Roman period, while a new farmstead nearby survived into the early 5th century. Elsewhere, a cluster of sunken-featured buildings yielded early Saxon pottery in Roman form and possible feasting waste. These settlements were in turn abandoned, to be replaced after the Norman Conquest by a farmstead and surrounding ridge and furrow field system which formed an outlying part of the village that had, by the time of Domesday, taken the name of Broughton – ‘the farm or settlement by the brook’.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490193580405,"sku":"9781907588068","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781907588068.jpg?v=1786442078"},{"product_id":"cotton-henge-to-craft-neolithic-to-anglo-saxon-remains-at-warth-park-raunds-northamptonshire","title":"Cotton ‘Henge’ to Craft","description":"Between 2013 and 2018, the construction of a new industrial park afforded Oxford Archaeology the opportunity to investigate 19ha of land on the western edge of Raunds, Northamptonshire. The archaeological works revealed evidence for human activity spanning the early Neolithic to middle Saxon periods. From at least the early 18th century, the area has been under cultivation and has consequently suffered the effects of a substantial period of ploughing. Key to the development of the site was an early Neolithic monumental ditched enclosure, recorded in the Northamptonshire Historic Environment Record (NHER) as Cotton ‘Henge’. Its excavation provided important new evidence for its date and its influence on the surrounding landscape. Nearby lay middle and late Neolithic pits containing pottery and struck flint. Positioned at the centre of the ‘Henge’ was an early Bronze Age barrow, which was subsequently incorporated into a Middle Bronze Age field system. Dense settlement remains dating to the early to middle Iron Age transition extended across much of the site, including structures, numerous storage pits or silos, cobbled trackways and a pit alignment. Large assemblages of pottery, animal bone and other finds came from these features, alongside rich environmental remains. Romano-British activity was significant, with non-settlement, craft and agrarian-related remains extending across the area. Features included a pottery kiln and corn dryer, various burials and six stone-lined wells. The latter yielded important finds and environmental assemblages, preserved in their waterlogged fills. The most impressive item was a near life-sized carved wooden arm, believed to be a votive offering. This is an extremely rare find and perhaps the only item of its type from Roman Britain. Anglo-Saxon settlement took the form of numerous sunken-featured buildings. By the post-medieval period, the development site lay beneath strip fields associated with the village of Raunds to the east; by this time, the adjacent medieval village of Mallows Cotton (located to the immediate west) had been abandoned. The archaeological evidence uncovered at Warth Park has demonstrated that this area has been a widely exploited and managed landscape for approximately five millennia. The remains reflect an agricultural site, with associated craft and funerary activity, linked to known settlement areas in the wider environs.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57490194530677,"sku":"9781907588167","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781907588167.jpg?v=1786442079"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/publisher-oxford-archaeology-east.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}