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THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZrNE 



temples sites have been found on other sites in 

 Britain (e.g. Uley, Woodward and Leach 1993). The 

 pit at Wayside Farm appears to have been the focus 

 for the more 'specialised' votive offerings, including 

 the deliberately crumpled garment collar 

 (Fig. 14.02), the bronze spoon (Figure 13.04), and 

 the curse tablet (Plate 6), although this object was 

 found within the midden immediately overlying the 

 pit. Large quantities of pottery and animal bone 

 (including complete ox skulls), as well as human 

 bone fragments were also recovered. 



The midden soils, the fills of pit F4225 and the 

 artefacts recovered may represent evidence for the 

 periodic clearance of offerings, feasts, and so forth 

 that may have taken place within a temenos precinct 

 of a temple and given a specified 'resting place', 

 the deposit itself subsequently regarded as 'special' 

 in character (Corney pers. comm.). The range of 

 everyday artefacts recovered from these deposits, 

 including animal bone, pottery and iron tools, 

 possibly present as votives, is not unusual for 

 religious sites, as similar finds were recovered from 

 both Cold Kitchen Hill and Colerne Park. These 

 objects may have been present as a result of feasting 

 or sacrifice, or at the time had symbolic reference, 

 the meaning of which is now unknown (Robinson 

 2001). The type of objects present on the site may 

 also relate to a specific deity or particular groups of 

 worshippers (Allason-Jones 2001). 



The deposit clearly represents evidence for 

 pagan beliefs and traditions right at the end of the 

 Romano-British period, and testifies to a 

 continuation of ritual practices undertaken in 

 Britain from the later prehistoric period onwards. 

 It is possible that such deposits can be regarded as 

 the Romano-British successors to the structured 

 ritual deposits discussed by Hill (1995). 



In Britain the majority of lead tablets have been 

 recovered from temple sites, e.g. Uley (Woodward 

 and Leach 1993) and Bath (Cunliffe 1988), 

 suggesting further that Wayside Farm has religious 

 affiliations. There is an indication from the legible 

 portion of the text (see Tomlin above), that the 

 'curse' relates to a theft. At both Uley and Bath the 

 majority of curses related to this act. 



Despite the above evidence for native British 

 and Roman religious practices, the burials excavated 

 in Area 1 have attributes which have both pagan 

 and Christian associations, and may provide 

 evidence for a Christian influence on the site. All 

 the burials were laid out on east to west alignments, 

 which can either pagan or Christian, although one 

 of which (Inhumation 2, Figure 16.6) contained 



an iron spoon (see Mills above). Spoons of this date 

 are found with Christian associations, but this iron 

 example is extremely rare, if not unique. 



Grave goods which normally have pagan 

 affiliations were present in all three graves. These 

 comprised a coin, hobnails denoting footwear, and 

 pottery vessels. Based on the two miniature 

 pedestal-base beakers found with Inhumations 1 

 and 2, the burials can be broadly considered to be 

 contemporaneous with the material recovered from 

 the extensive midden deposit, although the coin 

 found within Inhumation 2 dates to between 

 AD335-340. This coin may already have been old 

 when placed in the hand of the individual. Another 

 example of a rarely identified pagan burial custom 

 in Wiltshire custom is decapitation. The head of 

 the individual Inhumation 1 was placed next to the 

 feet. Mills (above) indicates that it cannot be known 

 if this was after death, or the cause of death. 

 However there are a few instances of graves in 

 Wiltshire where it suggested that the head was 

 decapitated following death (Foster 2001), for 

 example at Winterbourne and Manton Down 

 (ibid.). It has been suggested by Philpott (1980, 

 88) that the purpose of this was as part of a 

 regeneration ritual to ensure well-being of the 

 individual in the afterlife. 



The presence of both burials and midden 

 deposits on late Romano-British sites of religious 

 type is not unknown, although the evidence is 

 somewhat limited. Human remains were found at 

 Cold Kitchen Hill (Goddard 1893) with indications 

 that the two graves here were also on east to west 

 alignments. 



Evidence for late Romano-British 

 settlement-based activity 



Deposits described under this heading do not fit 

 into the normal pattern of 'ritual activity' and based 

 on the present evidence it must be assumed that 

 some other settlement-based activity was taking 

 place on the site at the same time. 



The principal evidence for activity of this type 

 comprises the two oven features F4007 and F4214; 

 although stone ovens were present on the temple 

 site at Uley (Woodward and Leach 1993). The 

 function of structure F4007 is unclear. There is little 

 or no evidence from elsewhere on the site, or from 

 the structure itself to suggest an industrial use such 

 as iron smelting; only 2kg of various slag types 

 including clinker were recovered from the entire 

 excavation. However, it is possible that the function 



