| Summary: | Excavation in advance of Phase 2 of the Exeter Logistics Park development at Hayes Farm revealed features of Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and post-Roman date. A small quantity of residual Grooved Ware, including a rim, indicate limited pre-Bronze Age activity. Three Bronze Age ring ditches were identified. Middle Bronze Age pottery was recovered from two of the ring ditches, which possibly represent part of a linear barrow cemetery. Botanical remains from one of them produced a radiocarbon date in the late 2nd millennium BC. Activity during the Iron Age was limited to several gullies which contained Iron Age pottery. Two rectangular enclosures of early Roman date were also revealed. Later Roman features included three probable graves and a smaller pit containing iron fittings and the blade of a saw. A large D-shaped post-Roman and a smaller trapezoidal enclosure were also identified. Two radiocarbon dates indicate occupation in the 7th- to 9th- centuries AD.
This report covers the results of two areas of excavation and an evaluation trench undertaken in 2020, but also summarises the results of evaluations in 2018 and 2019 where relevant. Archaeological features in the three areas included ditches, pits, postholes, four probable graves and a well. These dated to the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Romano-British and early medieval periods. |
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