The Excavation of a Romano-British Farmstead and Cemetery on Bradley Hill, Somerton, Somerset

Abstract

The report describes the complete excavation of the buildings and cemetery of a late fourth century Romano-British farmstead built on a site earlier occupied from the Pre-Roman Iron Age to c. A.D. wo. The farmstead consisted of three buildings; two of these were two-or three-roomed houses, the third was probably built as a byre. Associated with the farmstead were 57 burials, all but four in east-west graves, and including adults, children and infants. The economic and social setting of the farmstead, its population and the religious beliefs of the inhabitants are discussed.

Poundbury Camp in Context—a new Perspective on the Lives of Children from urban and ruralRomanEngland

“… Non‐adult burials were recovered from within the settlement boundaries associated with a fourth century AD building (Leech et al, ), rather than from the fifth century AD cemetery (Gerrard, ).…”

A Persistence of Place: A Study of Continuity and Regionality in the Roman and Early Medieval Rural Settlement Patterns of Norfolk, Kent and Somerset

“…Under Roman law, cemeteries were situated outside settlements: an exception to this was the burial of infants, with the result that many infant burials are found within settlement complexes, both inside and outside of buildings (Leech 1977, 132). Adult inhumations from within Roman settlements are not unknown from Somerset, however: at Kenn Moor (North Somerset), for example, two north-south facing inhumations were recovered during excavation (Rippon 2000b, 85), while at Bradley Hill, adult inhumations were recovered from various contexts (see Leech 1981), although, as discussed above, this site's function has recently been brought into question (Smart 2008, 270).…”

Coastal Trade in Roman Britain: the Investigation of Crandon Bridge, Somerset, a Romano-British Trans-shipment Port beside the Severn Estuary

“…133 Rahtz 1979Rippon 1995;Rahtz et al 2000, 293. 134 Broomhead 1993. 135 Cunliffe 1979;Leech 1981;1982b;Leach 2001b;Bennett 1985 east of Britain, Allen and Fulford have suggested that this was probably foodstuffs and other perishables, but the numbers and opulence of villas in modern Somerset suggest that this was an agriculturally well-developed region. 136 One material that clearly was shipped down the Severn Estuary was coal from the Forest of Dean that is found in Caerwent, while material from the Somerset coalfield reached Cannington.…”