Land South of Snarlton Farm, Melksham, Wiltshire

The evaluation project design required the excavation of 68 trenches within the site. However, due to the presence of an underground water pipe it was not possible to excavate Trenches 4, 11 and 13 and Trench 12 had to be slightly shortened. Due to the presence of a possible underground service, it was necessary to relocate Trench 27, and it was not possible to excavate Trenches 31 and 32. As such, a total of 63 trenches were excavated. All amendments to the agreed trenching scheme were agreed with the archaeological representative of Wiltshire Council. The trenches were located in order to investigate anomalies identified by the geophysical survey and to provide a representative sample of the site area. Non-significant overburden was removed, under constant archaeological supervision, to the top of archaeological remains, or the underlying natural deposits, whichever was encountered first. This was achieved through use of a 360� mechanical excavator, equipped with a toothless grading bucket. Features and spoil tips were visually scanned for finds and they were subject to a metal detector survey. Where potential archaeological features were present, these were subject to appropriate levels of investigation. All excavation and recording was undertaken in accordance with the approved Project Design and the Foundations Archaeology Technical Manual 3: Excavation Manual. Due to severe flooding it was not possible to fully investigate all of the identified features within the trenches. Where features could not be excavated, they were recorded in plan only. Where possible, artefacts were recovered from the top of unexcavated features. This amendment to the approved investigation scheme was agreed with the archaeological representative of Wiltshire Council. The geophysical survey and the evaluation have indicated the presence of moderately preserved archaeological remains in the north and east parts of the site (Fields 1, 2 and 4). These consisted of multiple ditched enclosures, with potentially associated pits and curvilinear ditches. The recovered artefacts suggested that the enclosures were related to Roman agricultural activity and/or occupation, which potentially spanned the Roman period. A small amount of residual struck flint, as well as some Medieval pottery indicated a low potential for pre- and post-Roman activity within the site. It should be noted that onsite flooding severely impeded the investigation of identified features and the recovery of finds, and this significantly reduced the interpretative potential of the evaluation.