2016 will see the third season of the Wiltshire Museum Archaeological Field Group (AFG) excavations near Devizes, supported by Wessex Archaeology (WA) and Archaeological Surveys Limited (AS). Phil Andrews of WA co-directs the excavation with Jan Dando of the AFG, whilst David Sabin and Kerry Donaldson (AS) undertake geophysical investigation.
Photo courtesy of Mike McQueen, Wiltshire Archaeological Field Group.Five years of fieldwork are planned, with publication of the results in 2020. WA’s involvement follows the conclusion of the very successful Truckle Hill community excavation (2007−12) in NW Wiltshire, which saw investigation of the area around the North Wraxall Roman villa, including a well-preserved bath-house and two earlier shrines.
Further details of the Bromham – Rowdefield Project can be found by following this link to the AFG website, but our challenge here is to make sense of this complex site which has been subject to several cursory investigations and a variety of interpretations in the past.
Already we have identified a pair of adjacent oval enclosures of probable Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age date, a possible Middle Bronze Age D-shaped enclosure and two Early Iron Age oval enclosures. Overlying most of these prehistoric features is a sequence of Romano-British remains including a variety of enclosures, a very clearly defined trackway, a midden, possible structural remains and a pair of crop dryers.
So, thanks to the goodwill and very considerable support from the farmer, we are about to embark on a further 10 days of investigations at the beginning of September. Again, we would like to answer more questions than we ask, but there is plenty on this intriguing site to whet the appetite!