Building One, Science Museum, Wroughton, Swindon: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design

Fieldwork commenced with the removal of topsoil and subsoil deposits from the excavation area by a mechanical excavator with a toothless grading bucket, under archaeological supervision. The archaeological features thus exposed were hand-excavated to the bottom of archaeological stratigraphy in accordance with the sampling strategy set out within the WSI. All funerary/ritual deposits were 100% excavated. Postholes and pits were sampled by hand excavation of up to 50% of each feature, except where their repetitive nature meant that some could be recorded in plan, with no excavation, with the agreement of Melanie Pomeroy-Kellinger. Ditches were sampled to a minimum of 10% of the extent of each feature by length. A metal detector was used to check for metal objects where 100% excavation was not taking place and to scan the spoil from the topsoil and subsoil strip. Pits within two prehistoric pit alignments were examined on site for their potential to use Optical Stimulation Luminescence (OSL) dating to resolve their chronology. However, the inspection suggested that they were unlikely to contain the suitable quartz material required for this process. A programme of archaeological investigation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology between September 2018 and February 2019 at the request of Feasibility Ltd acting on behalf of the Science Museum Group ahead of the construction of Building One, Science Museum, Wroughton, Swindon. Following a geophysical survey and trench evaluation an area totalling 3.5ha was excavated. The earliest archaeological feature was a pit containing early Beaker period (2400-2150 BC) pottery, flintwork and charred plant remains. A ring-ditch or C-shaped ditch, partially revealed at the eastern edge of the site and not seen in the adjacent watching brief area, was provisionally interpreted as the remains of a possible Early Bronze Age (2150-1700 BC) barrow but appears to be of later prehistoric, possibly Middle Iron Age (400-50 BC), date. What may have been a relatively open landscape was reorganised perhaps at the end of the Bronze Age (1150 to 800 BC) with the setting out of two pit alignments, containing some 300 pits and extending beyond the site boundaries, that may represent the first significant land divisions on this site, perhaps for controlling animals. Evidence for habitation on the site includes an extensive open settlement of Iron Age date, which appears to have been remodelled in the Roman period. Radiocarbon dating suggests this had its origins in the Early Iron Age, although the artefactual evidence indicates that the settlement is mostly of Middle Iron Age date (400-50 BC), consisting of a C-shaped enclosure and an unenclosed roundhouse settlement that contained at least nine dwellings or ancillary structures and numerous pits. It is likely to have extended beyond the excavated area. During the Late Iron Age/Early Roman period, an enclosed roundhouse settlement was established, comprising two dwellings within a rectilinear enclosure. This enclosure lay within one of several large enclosures alongside a droveway orientated to run between the clay vale to the north and the chalk downs on which the site is located, and it is likely that the enclosures here reflect livestock management, perhaps relating to upland summer grazing. Arable production may be indicated by possible grain-storage pits. During the Roman period, the occupied enclosure was superseded by a further rectilinear enclosure within lay a sub-enclosure; this may have contained a dwelling, although no in situ traces of this survived. The Roman period also saw the laying out of a small cemetery and the creation of a substantial oven, probably for crop-processing, and perhaps indicating a change of agricultural use from primarily livestock to arable. Many substantial pits were found across the western half of the site.