IRON AGE SETTLEMENT AND ROMAN ACTIVITY AT BRICKLEY LANE, DEVIZES 



233 



Table 13: Mineralized Remains 



Sample 

 Context 

 Fraction sorted 

 Brassica/Mustard etc 



Brassica/Sinapis sp. 



cf. Cruciferae 



cf. Ranunculus subgen Ranunculus Buttercup 



cf. Caryophyllaceae 



Chenopodiaceae 



Medicago/Trifolium/Lotus sp. 



Aphanes arvensis 



Aphanes arvensis/Urtica dioica 



cf. Malus sylvestris 



Umbelliferae 



Torilis japonica 



Polygonaceae 



cf. Urtica dioica 



Anagahs type 



Lithospermum arvense 



Labiatae 



Sambucus nigra 



cf. Sambucus nigra 



Gramineae 



Gramineae 



Indet 



Sphaeroceridae 



Indet 



Other 



Seeds/nutlets etc. unless otherwise stated 



Medick/Clover/Trefoil 

 Parsley-piert 



Parsley-piert/Common Nettle 

 cf. Apple pip 



Upright Hedge-parsley 



Common Nettle 



Corn Gromwell 



Small seeded labiate 



Elderberry 



Elderberry 



Grass, small seeded 



Grass, large seeded 



Sewage Fly puparia 

 Fly puparia 

 Fish verterae 



8 



10 



11 



100 



227 



93 



10% 



10% 





1000+ 



422 



19 



1 



- 



- 



- 



- 



7 



- 



4 



29 



1 



4 



108 



- 



- 



1 



- 



- 



20 



- 



- 



5 



- 



- 



1 



- 



- 



10 



- 



- 



1 



14 



38 



22 



- 



- 



2 



1 



1 



14 



1 



3 



6 



2 



- 



3 



- 



- 



1 



- 



1 



3 



- 



- 



1 



1 



- 



- 



16 



49 



176 



- 



- 



4 



- 



- 



16 



are more typically grassland species although they 

 do occur in association with cereal remains. 

 Eleocharis palustris (common spikerush) is 

 characteristic of seasonally wet ground, and when 

 found in association with cereal remains tends to 

 be interpreted as derived from wetter parts of arable 

 fields. 



The mineralised remains in samples 8 and 9 

 are dominated by seeds of Brassica/Sinapis sp. 

 (turnip/cabbage/mustard etc.). In sample 8, some 

 1000 seeds were counted while many more 

 remained. The full sample must have contained in 

 excess of 10,000 seeds in 40 litres. The seeds were 

 more or less spherical in shape. They were too 

 small for Sinapis alba (white mustard) . The seeds 

 could therefore be identified as Brassica sp. or 

 Sinapis arvensis (charlock) . The surface structure 

 on the seeds was that of an internal calcium 

 phosphate cast of the testa and did not show the 

 external cell pattern of the seed. In the absence of 

 any original surface structure it was not possible 

 to identify to seeds further. One charred seed was 

 identified as Brassica cf . nigra (black mustard) so 

 it is possible that further Brassica nigra seeds are 

 included. 



Mineralised seeds of weed species were also 

 recovered from the samples. While in samples 8 and 

 10 weed seeds were quite rare in relation to the 

 brassicas, sample 1 1 was dominated by weed seeds 

 with only few brassicas. A large number of seeds in 

 this sample were poorly preserved and recorded as 

 indeterminate. Of the better preserved seeds, most 

 were from ruderal or arable species. In particular, 

 seeds of indeterminate Chenopodiaceae were 

 numerous. Other ruderal or arable species include 

 Aphanes arvensis, Urtica dioica, Torilis japonica and 

 the Polygonaceae. Lithospermum arvense is more 

 characteristic of arable fields. All these samples 

 could have been derived from cereal processing 

 waste. A ruderal species which might also have been 

 eaten, Sambucus nigra, would not have grown as 

 an arable weed so can not have entered the deposit 

 as a waste product of cereal processing. This sample 

 also contained several fly puparia including 4 

 identifiable to the family level as Sphaeroceridae. 

 Weed seeds identified from the other samples are 

 of similar species though in much small numbers. 

 A possible Malus sylvestris (crab apple) pip was 

 recovered from sample 1 1 . A fish vertebrae was 

 present in sample 8. 



