Bantycock, Balderton, Nottinghamshire: Archaeological Excavation Report

Prior to detailed investigation, areas of the site were mechanically stripped of plough and subsoil deposits to expose the cultural/natural horizon. A 10m grid was established as the primary recording benchmark. Given the size of the investigation (approximately 2.4 hectares), intensive cleaning of the archaeological horizon was employed primarily to tackle areas exhibiting multiple inter-cutting or other such complexities. Although feature digging was relatively low in percentage terms, the excavators investigated almost every archaeological entity. Critical junctions were box-sectioned where surface relationships were not absolute, and extensive linear features were sectioned in several locations. Discrete features such as pits were half-sectioned or fully excavated, and all burials were fully excavated and comprehensively sampled. The earliest phase of occupation is characterised in the artefactual record by the exclusive occurrence of handmade jars of Middle-Late Iron Age form. It is possible to observe through time the gradual introduction of exotic goods and, to some degree, the evolution of a Romanised community, though all indicators suggest that the settlement was little more than a humble agricultural affair throughout much of its life. Its people were of relatively low status - hard working farmers in an environment that was characterised by similar semi-dispersed communities (it would appear from cropmark and corroborative evidence that, by the Roman period, if not before, the superficially marginal claylands to the south of Newark were densely populated and worked by small communities of mixed farmers). In the later Roman period, there appears to have been a significant reorganisation of the settlement landscape, and by Phase 7 (mid-4th century or later) there is a marked decline in the frequency of archaeological remains and contemporary artefacts, perhaps reflecting at least a partial population shift (there are other, thus far unexcavated, settlement complexes close by). The latest archaeological phases, 8 and 9, show few indications of permanent occupancy whatsoever, though the site continued to be of importance; now as a focus for burial and ritual - a dominant feature of Phase 8 is a small, highly organised inhumation cemetery and an unusual small polygonal enclosure (shrine?), within which was an embellished well. Relative to the Trent Valley, animal bone preservation at Bantycock was good: both in terms of species identification and broad trends that evolved through time. In the cultural landscape, it has been possible to identify Romano-British features that were almost exclusively associated with the management of livestock - potential paddocks and features that would assist the movement of grazing animals such as cattle. Possible animal pens are also described, though often the excavation samples of these features were insufficient to substantiate some of the hypotheses that are put forward.