THE 1963 EXCAVATIONS AT ERLESTOKE DETENTION CENTRE 



123 



third with an unspecified find spot. All are made 

 from Romano-British coarse wares. 



Two fragments of limestone approximately 7cm 

 across are remnants of roof tiles. No find spot is 

 specified. A whetstone fragment and the lower stone 

 from a rotary quern, now missing, were found 'near' 

 inhumation 2. 



ANIMAL BONE 



Although bones of sheep/goat, cattle, horse, deer 

 and bird (unspecified) were kept, much of the 

 material mentioned in Grant King's notes is now 

 missing. It is therefore difficult to determine any 

 distribution of bone over the site or to associate it 

 with dateable pottery. The majority of the labelled 

 bone comes from Cutting IVC. 



DISCUSSION 



The pottery evidence form Erlestoke Detention 

 Centre suggests use of the area over a long period 

 beginning sometime in the Bronze Age. A hiatus 

 following the middle Iron Age was followed by 

 activity on the site in the late Iron Age and 

 throughout almost the whole of the Roman period. 

 The quantity of Savernake wares perhaps reflects 

 most intensive use in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. 



It is probable that this area was on the fringe of 

 a farmstead or small rural settlement where 

 marginal land unsuitable for agricultural or light 

 industrial purposes would have been used for 

 domestic rubbish, perhaps in pits (hence the large 

 size of many of the sherds) . Such 'waste ground' 

 would also have been used for adult burials, not 

 normally allowed within a settlement during the 

 Roman period. The cluster of inhumations in Area 

 B, at least three of which are associated with 

 Romano-British material, may represent some of 

 the members of such a community. 



The incomplete recording of many such small 

 (<10 burials) rural Romano-British cemeteries in 

 Wiltshire has made it difficult to detect patterns in 

 burial practices of this period. Nevertheless, 

 Erlestoke is in keeping with other more recently 

 excavated cemeteries of this type where, for 

 example, a mixture of flexed, crouched, and 

 extended burials is recorded (e.g. Figheldean and 

 Maddington Farm) . Similarly, although grave goods 

 occur in roughly a third overall of burials in such 

 cemeteries, this proportion can vary greatly from 

 cemetery to cemetery: at Eyewell Farm two of a 



possible eight burials contain hobnails, while at 

 Figheldean hobnails are included in eight of nine 

 burials. Hobnails, as in these two examples and at 

 Erlestoke, are the most frequent inclusion. However 

 the sparseness of securely dateable artefacts within 

 many of the burials in these and larger cemeteries 

 makes it difficult to trace use of these cemeteries 

 over time and some of the burials at Erlestoke may 

 well be Iron Age. 



As the area within the Detention Centre is now 

 almost entirely built over, there will be in future 

 very little scope for further examination of the site. 

 Any conclusions about its use in previous periods 

 must therefore remain tantalising speculation. 



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 



The authors are most grateful for the specialist 

 contributions of Philip Harding (flints), Dr. Paul 

 Robinson (Iron Age pottery), Robert Hopkins 

 (Savernake and samian wares), Dr. Brenda 

 Dickinson (samian stamps), Dr. Kay Hartley 

 (mortaria), Dr. Colin Pardoe (human remains) and 

 Dr. I.W.Young FRCS (animal bone). We should 

 also like to thank Mr Michael Cook, and Mr Adrian 

 Mills, former governors of Erlestoke Prison, for their 

 assistance. Mr Nicholas Griffiths kindly produced 

 all the drawings. Finally we would like to thank Mrs 

 Marian Geeves for her help in compiling the archive. 



Bibliography 



ANON. 1982, Brounkers Court Farm and White Gates 

 Farm (Wiltshire Archaeological Register for 1981, 

 nos. 41 & 46). WANHM 77, 160 



CLARKE 1979, The Roman cemetery at Lankhills. Oxford 



CRUMMY, N.j 1983, The Roman Small Finds from 

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 Colchester Archaeological Trust 



FITZPATRICK, A.P., and CROCKETT, A.D., 1998, A 

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 11-35 



GRAHAM, A., and NEWMAN, C, 1993, Recent 

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HALL, K, 2000, 'Fired Clay', in A. Lawson, Porrerne 

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MANNING, W.H., 1985, Catalogue of the Romano- 

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 Museum. London: British Museum 



McKTNLEY, J. and HEATON, M., 1996, A Romano- 

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