Oxford Archaeology present findings including evidence of Roman …
Archaeologists working on the Southern Link Road project have unearthed new discoveries which help to tell the story of our town and its place in history.
A team from Oxford Archaeology have been working with the developers of the Southern Link Road,[1] a project which will link the A46 at Farndon with the A1 at Balderton through the creation of a new four-mile long road south of Newark.
As part of the planning process and required by national policy, archaeological works have been taking place for the past few years on the project site prior to construction and are due to finish later this year.
Archaeology team, Maria Bellissimo, Simon Mortimer and Liz Jones presenting finds at the Southern Link Road engagement event.
The sheer scale of the development site offered archaeologists a rare opportunity to investigate an area far larger than would usually be possible.
Typically commercial archaeological digs tend to cover a long and thin area in the case of rail line construction or much smaller plots for individual buildings or housing clusters.
The team presented their findings so far at a special public engagement and information event about the project at YMCA Newark and Sherwood on Lord Hawke Way.
Since the initial stages of development in 2016, a number of discoveries have been made on the link road site which help to redefine the historical importance of Newark and the surrounding countryside beyond the English Civil War for which it is most commonly known.
Early to middle Bronze Age bucket urns roughly 3000 years old.
A Roman bowl shortly after it had been found and dug up. Photo: Oxford Archaeology.
These archaeological works have unearthed evidence of human activity dating back to the Neolithic period, through the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods and help tell a story of the people that lived in and around the Newark area.
The oldest find was a Neolithic hand axe carved out of a very specific type of stone found on a mountaintop in Langdale, Lake District, where an ancient axe making operation was situated.
These item were typically handed down through generations and traded over small distances, so it is significant that one was found as far away as Newark.
Evidence was also found of a possible ancient hengiform monument, similar to the likes of Stone Henge, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Alongside this was a Bronze Age cremation cemetery, with burial urns and carefully crafted ornaments such a jet stone pendant with dotted inlays.
A dot decorated fragment from an early Bronze Age necklace made of jet stone.
Remains of a Roman kiln found on the Southern Link Road project site with some pots still in it and in tact. Photo: Oxford Archaeology.
Roman pottery recovered from kilns in what is believed to be an ancient pottery production site.
But perhaps the most exciting find was the discovery of over 70 Roman pottery kilns which point to the area as the centre of a previously unknown large-scale pottery industry.
Maria Bellisimo, from Oxford Archaeology, said: “This is something pretty outstanding because it is very unusual to find so many pottery kilns in one place.
“We know of other pottery production centres around England but we had no idea there was one of these sites this far East.
“We’re still trying to piece it together and understand what was happening but it was clearly something very significance.
“In some kilns we even found pottery in situ, still intact inside the ovens which is pretty incredible.
“That doesn’t happen very often and it’s a privilege to be able to see these snapshots of the past.
“It was really great to get the opportunity to work on this site, which has produced so many amazing finds, it was like an archaeologist’s feast to delve through thousands and thousands of years of human history all in one place.”
An Ango-Saxon antler comb recovered from the dig site.
An medieval long cross coin.
Later finds on the site include Anglo-Saxon brooch fragments, a spindle wheel and an engaved bone antler hair comb with some teeth remarkably still intact.
Foundations of sunken buildings was also found, which are believed could have been used as crafting huts and coins from the Norman period, such as a medieval long-cross penny, were found.
While the full story of the site will take several years to piece together after analysing samples and artifacts away from the site, they would never have been unearthed without the Southern Link Road project taking place.
Archaeological consultant, Simon Mortimer, said: “As an archaeologist it was an absolute dream to work on this site, we had about 200 hectares to play with and it was a real chance to get to grips with the story of the area.
“It just shows what you get from developer funded archaeology, there is no other vehicle in England that allows you to do that.
“Everybody thinks archaeologists sit there with paint brushes, but actually we use big 360 degree, heavy plant, 20 tonne machinery to strip an area the size of 20 football pitches and that’s why development and archaeology go so well hand in hand.
“Finding this Roman pottery industrial centre on this previously unknown site also changes our understanding of the area — it was mass production and would have been exported all across the Midlands.”
Once the everything has been collected, collated and a story established, the Oxford Archaeology team will present their findings with Urban and Civic to the public.
References
- ^ working with the developers of the Southern Link Road, (www.newarkadvertiser.co.uk)