British Archaeology, no 14, May 1996: News

A huge Neolithic enclosure, once surrounded by a colossal palisade of oak timbers, has been identified in central Wales. The site covers up to 86 acres (35 ha) - twice the size of Avebury - and could be the largest known Neolithic enclosure in Western Europe.

No work has yet been done on the interior, and therefore its function - whether practical, ritual or both - remains unknown. However, it must have been an extremely impressive structure to look at. Oval in ground-plan, its oak palisade may have consisted of about 1,530 close-set timbers, each of which was probably about six metres high and weighed about two-and- a-half tonnes, according to the excavator, Alex Gibson of the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust.

The site, at Hindwell near Knighton in Radnorshire, was first identified on air photographs in 1994, and confirmed by trial excavations funded by Cadw last year. The excavations found a line of deep post-pits set very close to one another, containing charcoal which has now been radiocarbon dated to c 2700-2400BC - placing the monument towards the end of the Neolithic period. It seems the timber posts were deliberately charred before being set in the pits, perhaps for water-proofing.

A small number of other Neolithic palisaded enclosures are known in Britain, including those at West Kennett in Wessex (where there are two enclosures), Mount Pleasant in Dorset, Greyhound Yard in Dorchester, Dunragit near Stranraer, Blackhouse Burn near Lanark, and Ballynahatty in Northern Ireland; but all these are half the size of Hindwell or less. Hindwell is set in an area full of Neolithic activity, including two cursus monuments, a four-stone circle, areas of intense flint scatter, and a nearby contemporary settlement known as Upper Ninepence (after a field), which was perhaps the home of the people who built the Hindwell enclosure.

One interesting feature of the monument is that its circumference, at one point, seems to be followed by an existing country lane. According to Dr Gibson, this may indicate the existence of a prehistoric track along the edge of the enclosure, which survived into historic times to become the modern road.

According to Alasdair Whittle of Cardiff University, who has excavated at West Kennett, enclosures such as these were built for sacred reasons, rather than for occupation or defence. `They fit into that tradition of the bounding of open space, as part of a symbolically important landscape,' he said.

Several intriguing pieces of information about Roman and early medieval London have emerged from a recent analysis of finds made over the past decade by the Museum of London Archaeology Service (MoLAS).

The finds include the first ever conquest-period Roman pottery from London, from sites in Southwark and Kensington. Previously, the earliest Roman pottery in London dated from the mid-50s AD, but the new finds strongly suggest a Roman presence in the area in the 40s (the invasion was in AD43), shedding some light on the vexed question of the origins of the town.

The pottery from Southwark came from a military-style ditch, excavated in 1989, and suggests that the Romans may have been attempting then to put a crossing over the Thames. According to Hedley Swain, Finds Manager at MoLAS, Southwark was a marshy area at the time, a cul de sac, and the only reason for anyone to go there was that it provided the shortest fordable crossing point over the river.

Little more, however, can be said about the ditch which was only partially excavated. The Kensington finds, made in 1994, date from the same period but are even more mysterious, being associated with building-type features that have not yet been clearly interpreted.

Equally interesting is the discovery of evidence for a flourishing British wine-making industry in the 1st century AD. The evidence was provided by the first ever complete British-made wine amphora, found in London outside the Roman city wall and pieced together from hundreds of fragments, which has allowed over 300 other fragmentary vessels from London to be identified as the same type. All the vessels are known to have been made in the area around Verulamium (St Albans), and the complete amphora was stamped with the potter's name, Senecio - either a Roman immigrant or a Romanised native.

Hitherto, all amphorae known in Britain came from the Mediterranean, suggesting that wine was only imported in the period; but according to Robin Symonds, a pottery expert at MoLAS, the new evidence suggests there may have been a wine industry centred around St Albans which supplied London. Coincidentally, finds of 2nd century grape pips near Northampton have recently been interpreted by the excavator, Ian Meadows of Northamptonshire Archaeology, as the remains of a vineyard - the first in Roman Britain.

The MoLAS finds, which were recently published in the journal London Archaeologist, also include some late Roman roof tiles from a high-status building in Southwark stamped Classis Britannica (the Roman fleet in Britain). The tiles suggest that the building, near the later Winchester Palace, may have been owned by the Roman fleet, perhaps a naval HQ. The building has not previously been identified, but was certainly a place of importance with high-quality plasterwork and inscriptions.

Medieval finds include a number of rare polychrome floor tiles of the late Saxon period (10th-11th century) from the Guildhall area of the City, where the Roman amphitheatre had stood. Similar green- brown patterned tiles have been found at the site of Edward the Confessor's Abbey Church at Westminster, and the new finds suggest a possible royal building in the City as well, on a site that later became the medieval Guildhall.

The remains of Late Neolithic humans and animals have been found during quarrying work in an ancient channel of the River Trent in Nottinghamshire. The bones may provide evidence of river- burial, ritual killing, or a catastrophic flood.

The bones include at least a dozen human skulls, some belonging to children and young teenagers, a few other human bones, and a similar scattering of skulls and bones from sheep, goat, cattle and aurochs. The bones, radiocarbon dated to c 2300- 2000BC, were stuck in a logjam in the stream together with possible cut timbers and a piece of wickerwork.

According to Mike Bishop, Nottinghamshire's County Archaeologist, the most likely explanation is that the bodies had been `excarnated' - exposed after death until decomposition - some way upstream, before being selectively thrown into the river as part of the funerary rite. `Maybe this is how the hoi polloi were treated,' he said. `Some people were buried in long mounds, but we don't know what happened to the bulk of the people, and river burial is one possibility.'

A catastrophic flood is another possible explanation, sweeping humans, animals and timber into the river in one event. This is supported to some extent by environmental evidence in the Trent for major flooding in the Bronze Age; though the preponderance of skulls suggests perhaps a more selective deposition. A third possibility is ritual killing, but the skulls contain no evidence of decapitation or other injury.

The work was carried out last month by Trent and Peak Archaeological Trust, and was funded by the County Council and Tarmac Quarry Products, the mineral operator.

Bronze Age feast

The remains of a vast prehistoric rubbish mound, built up into a monument after ritual feasting, has been recognised at East Chisenbury on Salisbury Plain. The mound, long thought part of the natural landscape because of its size, dates from c 800-600BC and still contains about 65,000 cubic metres of its original material - pottery, bone, and a variety of other artefacts - despite centuries of erosion.

Writing in the latest issue of Antiquity, David McOmish of the English Royal Commission says the mound was created after the `conspicuous consumption of the product of the agricultural cycle' - a symbolic event perhaps connected with the establishment of authority. Other possible `ceremonial feasting sites' exist in the area, he writes, at Potterne, All Cannings Cross and Bishops Cannings, as well as elsewhere in southern England.

Crimean graves

A cemetery containing the graves of possible British sailors from the Crimean War has been found near Sebastopol in Ukraine. The 120 graves contain bone and brass buttons and parts of toothbrushes, but no weapons. The dead may have been victims of a great storm in 1854 in which the British lost 30 ships.

Map of Culloden

A map of the Battle of Culloden, drawn by a French officer who fought on the Highland side, but previously unknown to historians, turned up last month in time for the battle's 250th annivesary on April 16th. It is the only known contemporary Jacobite map of the battle, and suggests (perhaps for propaganda) that Bonnie Prince Charlie began the battle in front of his army, rather than merely watching from a distant hill, as stated by English accounts.

The map, which also reveals the crucial part played by the Campbells in winning the battle for the English, was given to the National Library of Scotland by an American of French descent. His identity has not been disclosed, but he claims the map has been in his family's possession since the 18th century. It now forms part of a new exhibition at the Library about the battle.

NEWS is compiled by Simon Denison