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THH WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 



recovered from Romano-British contexts are older 

 animals, probably kept as pack animals or for riding. 

 At Dorchester By-pass (Bullock n.d.) and 

 Winklebury (Jones 1977), tooth eruption and 

 epiphyseal fusion data from individual elements 

 revealed that most of the horses represented were 

 also adult. Butchery marks have been recorded on 

 horse bones from contemporary sites including 

 Farmoor (Wilson 1979) and Dorchester By-pass 

 (Bullock n.d.) suggesting that horses were utilised 

 for their meat and skins. 



A small proportion of wild species is also usual 

 for sites of this period. King (1978: 216) notes that 

 where cervid bones are found, they most often 

 belong to red deer and explains this as being due to 

 their preferred size. 



CONCLUSION 



The Wayside Farm site probably lies on the 

 periphery of a settlement diat appears to have been 

 engaged in the keeping of cattle specifically for the 

 production of beef. Other animals seem to have 

 played a relatively minor role in the economy. The 

 size of the midden and predominance of primary 

 butchery waste in all feature types suggests that 

 cattle butchery was an important function of the 

 site; this is supported by the pattern of butchery 

 and bone fragmentation suggesting intensive 

 processing of the carcasses. Anomalies in anatomical 

 representation, which cannot be explained solely 

 by density mediated taphonomy, also suggest that 

 some surplus joints of beef may have been exported 

 from the site and it is likely that if surplus meat was 

 produced dien both carcasses and filleted joints may 

 also have been exported. Evidence of the species 

 exploited, their mortality profiles and butchery all 

 point toward a settlement strongly influenced by 

 Romanisation. 



THE CHARRED AND 



MINERALISED PLANT 



REMAINS 



by Wendy J. Carruthers 



INTRODUCTION AND 

 METHODS 



A total of sixteen samples was submitted for 

 analysis. These comprised six samples from late Iron 

 Age/early Roman periods (Phase 1) storage pits and 



a linear feature in Area 1. Late Romano-British 

 (Phase 2) samples analysed for this report include 

 one from a grave in Area 1 , two from possible corn- 

 drying ovens, three from the midden, two post-hole 

 fills and a pit fill, all in Area 2. Three of these (the 

 grave fill and the two post-hole fills) produced no 

 archaeobotanical remains. 



The samples were processed by AC archaeology 

 staff using standard methods of flotation. A 

 minimum mesh of 500 microns was used to retain 

 the flots and a 1 mm mesh was used for the residues. 

 The flots were fully sorted under a binocular 

 microscope by the author, and all of the residues 

 were scanned. Where mineralised plant remains 

 were observed in the flots, the residues were fully 

 sorted. In addition, all of the midden residues were 

 fully sorted. Microscopic sorting of the residues was 

 considered necessary in view of extensive 

 mineralisation found on the nearby Late Bronze 

 Age site at Potterne (Carruthers 2000). As at 

 Wayside Farm, Potterne was also located on Upper 

 Greensand and consisted of a vast deposit of 

 midden-type material containing high 

 concentrations of mineralised plant remains. 



RESULTS 



Table 16 lists the charred and mineralised plant 

 remains recovered from the samples. Nomenclature 

 and the habitat information follow Stace (1991). 



DISCUSSION 



The Mineralised Plant Remains 



Calcium phosphate-replaced plant remains were 

 present in low concentrations in three of the sixteen 

 samples examined for this report. This type of 

 preservation occurs in deposits that are rich in 

 nutrients and have a high moisture content (Green 

 1979; Carruthers 2000). It is likely that the parent 

 soil type is also important, although this factor needs 

 further investigation. Despite the widespread 

 occurrence of mineralised plant remains in the 

 midden at Potterne (Carruthers ibid), the Phase 2 

 Romano-British midden at Wayside Farm did not 

 produce many mineralised seeds. Bone, however, 

 was frequent and well preserved in two of the 

 samples (11 and 12). It is also notable that a 

 fragment of probable cereal grain was one of the 

 taxa recovered from the midden, as well as a small- 

 seeded arable weed, corn spurrey (Spergula 

 arvensis). These remains probably originated in 

 faecal waste or some other type of domestic waste. 



