SECOND INTERIM REPORT

by Andrea Cox, Jonathan Fox and Gabor Thomas

Work in the 1997 season both expanded and consoliated the work of the previous season. It included the establishment of pioneering investigative techniques in the parish survey, more extensive geophysical and landscape surveying, and two more open-area excavations. The work generally concentrated in three locations: the outlying settlement of Eaton, West Hall, and the Boneyard/Reeddam area.

Additionally, the field history team concentrated its efforts on studying the West Hall area in order to try to determine the sites of the various moats and manorial features recorded in the records of the Prior and Chapter of Norwich Cathedral church to which it belonged. Various techniques were used in the study included a survey of the river from just east of West Hall, westwards to the Lady Well, the primary aim being to plot the contemporary course of the river and to record any evidence for past activity within its banks. It is expected that this will highlight past attempts at artificially controlling the river, through canalization, and the construction of subsidiary waterways in association with the priory manor complex.

Open-area excavations in West Hall Paddock expanded upon the results of the 1996 test-pitting and geophysical survey, while the geophysics team extended its study area to the adjacent Dovecote Field and the gardens of West Hall. Initially, two excavation sites were opened, A and B. Due to the complexity of archaeological deposits encountered in the former, however, Site B was abandoned during the initial stages of excavation. The excavation revealed a complex sequence of deposits centred on a substantial 1m wide chalk wall, of which 11m was exposed. This survived to a depth of 0.5m below the modern-day ground surface, and was butted to the west by a sequence of superimposed cobbled surfaces, mortar and soil deposits. The flint and cobbles were well worn and the mortar and solid deposits that they sealed yielded painted plaster, roofing tile, lead and Grimston-ware pottery, all suggesting a medieval date. To its east was a large feature containing post-medieval material that truncated two dumped deposits that have also been dated to the medieval period on artefactual evidence. Underlying the wall and all of these deposits was a series of dumped sands which sealed a layer of peat containing well-preserved palaeo-environmental remains.

On the basis of this evidence, a preliminary interpretation is that the Paddock was part of an earlier river course or marsh that was reclaimed in the medieval period, when a large high-status structure was built (possible associated with the manor complex). The longevity of the structure led to several phases of flooring, and after its abandonment a post-medieval feature of uncertain function was dug adjacent to it. It is possible that this feature may have been excavated to obtain soil for the major landscaping of the vicarage gardens in the Victorian period. Further study of the finds and environmental samples and the complete excavation of the site are essential, however, before any conclusive dates and interpretations can be postulated.

The electrical resistivity survey of West Hall's gardens and Dovecote Field, to the south and west of the Paddock, employed a one metre interval sampling strategy. Prelimi-nary results from the gardens suggest that the wall uncovered in the Area A excavation may continue southwards for several metres, suggesting a substantial structure. The results from Dovecote indicate a large dry rectangular feature towards the centre of the field; a wet linear anomaly running adjacent to it, and beyond these several smaller wet linear features. These confirm the evidence of above ground earthworks, and can best be interpreted as a possible structural platform with an associated ditch. At this early stage, a tentative hypothesis is that these features represent manorial building foundations and associated water features - boat-bays and/or fish-ponds.

The standing-building survey of the parish church of St. Mary the Virgin was continued this season, by implementing a programme of photogrammetric recording. This will provide an accurate record of the building from which a structural history can be recovered, and has improved upon the time-consuming process of stone-by-stone drawing used on the church survey in 1996.

Excavations continued on the Boneyard field, the principle objectives being to excavate fully the area opened during the 1996 season to define the cemetery's extent, and to establish the relationship between Middle-Saxon and Late-Saxon/Early Medieval features.

The opening of slots into the unexcavated area to the east, revealed the continuation of the Middle-Saxon North-South ditches and gullies sampled in last season's excavation. That some of these were intercutting, suggests they represent more than one period of usage, though their functions remainunclear. The possibility that they were used to demarcate the eastern boundary of the cemetery is unlikely considering the fact that, in places, they were cut by later burials.

Boneyard in 1997.

A total of seventeen skeletons were excavated, and a further six partially revealed but not lifted, increasing the total number of interments from both seasons to forty-three. All skeletons were supine and orientated W-E, denoting Christian rite and the majority, judging by the arm positions and the occasional presence of bone or metal dress-pins, were buried in shrouds. The copper alloy pins provide an 8th/9th century date, suggesting contemporaneity with some of the Middle-Saxon settlement features. This is suggested further by the presence of burials in the SW corner, and their absence to the east where Middle-Saxon ditches and pits are located. An unusual burial located in the SW corner of the excavation was of a female with a horse, the latter orientated N-S. The head of the female was resting on top of the horse's pelvis, though both the skull and limbs of the horse were missing due to truncation by a later burial. The discovery of an explicitly pagan burial rite of this date suggests that the cemetery could have been serving and Anglo-Scandinavian community.

Excavation to the east revealed a spread of possible occupation debris characterised by rounded flint clasts, pottery, and animal bone. The layer extended across the northern half of the excavation area, thinning out towards the west. Remnants of a rammed chalk surface, supported by a foundation of coarse flint clasts, was discovered in association with the occupation debris and is likely to have formed a floor surface. A possible interpretation for this material is that it represents ephemeral structural remains belonging to a phase of activity or occupation post-dating the cemetery.

Excavation in the Reeddam for 1997 concentrated on two areas. The first, a main 10 x 5m area was opened up to sample more of the Middle-Saxon midden deposits encountered in the previous season's programme of test-pitting. The second, a N-S 3m-wide trench linking the main Reeddam excavation and the Boneyard site was designed to establish stratigraphic relationships between the two sites.

As expected, excavation in the former revealed a Middle-Saxon occupation deposit, characterised by discoveries of Middle-Saxon Ipswich-ware pottery, animal bone, oyster shell and other Mid-Late Saxon artifacts including a copper-alloy stylus and a bone spindle-whorl with punched ring-and-dot decoration. This season's excavation in the Reeddam was marked by the unexpected discovery of a dense concentration of burials cut into this Middle-Saxon deposit. Although time precluded the total excavation of the area, a total of 17 E-W orientated, supine inhumations were recorded and lifted. These were interred very close together and in some instances one on top of the other. This evidence suggests contemporary interment in a mass-grave, and it seems apposite at this preliminary stage to interpret these as plague burials. The dating of this phase of burial in the Reeddam was complicated by the homogeneous nature of the deposits, which prevented the accurate definition of grave cuts and fills. Ipswich-ware pottery was associated with some of the burials, and, on this basis, they too have been attributed a general Mid-Late Saxon date. It is most likely, considering the proximity of the excavation to the Boneyard field, that these burials represent a northern extension of the Boneyard cemetery at some time during its use.

Excavation in the linking trench was restricted to two sondages, the first, located at the southern end of the trench, was fully excavated to establish the depth of archaeological deposits. Excavation of the second, located 10m to the north, was terminated on the discovery of a W-E burial which was left in situ. Excavation of the southernmost sondage revealed the northern extent of the occupation debris encountered in the eastern side of the Boneyard excavation. This overlaid substantial colluvial deposits, over a metre in depth, which in turn sealed a series of closely-spaced W-E burials, some of which were intercutting. The earliest of these is interpreted as a coffin burial on the basis of the discovery of a number of 'L' shaped iron fittings and nails. the burials encountered in both sondages were interpreted on stratigraphic and artefactual grounds as broadly contemporary with the burials discovered in the Boneyard excavation, and they indicate a probable uninterrupted area of interments extending northwards in the Reeddam.

Results from this season's excavation in the Boneyard/Reeddam area have forced us to modify our views on the nature and extent of the Boneyard cemetery. We now know the bounds of the cemetery were appreciable greater than hitherto thought, extending a considerable distance north into the Reeddam. They have also modified our views on dating; stratigraphic and artefactual evidence now suggests that the cemetery had a long period of use extending over several generations during the Mid-Late Saxon period. We must also accept the possibility of a post-cemetery phase of occupation marked by the discovery of ephemeral structural evidence. The excavation of all three open-area sites will continue next season, and the field history team will continue to survey Sedgeford and its environs. Priorities will be to excavate fully the Boneyard-Reeddam linking trench to confirm the relationship between the archaeological features discovered on both sites, to sample the rich environmental deposits encountered in the Paddock, and to concentrate excavation to the north of the Boneyard field where, as the excavation of sondage 1 revealed, we can expect to find the best preservation of archaeological features and deposits preserved beneath the colluvium.

This year some of the preliminary post-excavation findings have been available for incorporation in this report. Improved facilities for handling finds have resulted in a great deal of preliminary work being done during the season, this is to the great advantage of both the report and the project.