Bücher von Lilian Ladle

Results from the excavation of this high-status Roman villa confirm its occupation throughout the Roman period and beyond, illuminating lifestyle and landscape through detailed analysis of its architecture, finds and environmental remains. This site includes rectilinear enclosures and associated Roman style buildings dating from the mid-1st century, and represents the earliest known proto-villa in Dorset. The buildings resemble those excavated in the south-east of Britain, with the acquisition of building materials, pottery, glassware, household, personal items and coinage confirming the economic vitality and wealth needed to sustain an elite lifestyle. Phases of construction and demolition are discussed, highlighting dramatic changes in the use of the site. There is also significant evidence of metalworking, textile production and hunting activities across the period of occupation. Discussion is supported throughout by comprehensive site plans, photographs and artefact illustrations. This excavation presents unparalleled evidence for villa development and decline, with relevance not only to those interested in Roman Britain, but also Northwest Europe more generally.

This book presents the detailed results of excavations at a small multi-period site in south-east Dorset. The site provided evidence for an Early Neolithic enclosure, a timber-framed, Late Bronze Age roundhouse, Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age middening activities, Iron Age and Roman settlement and a post-Roman inhumation cemetery. The midden and its associated features and finds are of particular significance, with evidence for deposition and accumulation over several centuries. Other important features include: a Late Iron Age stone-lined pit containing over 100 near-complete pots and a substantial quantity of animal bone, suggesting a large-scale communal gathering and feasting activity; a Roman barn, used as a shale workshop and as a burial place for infants; a 6th- to 8th-century AD cemetery of single, double and triple graves, illuminating the nature of change in burial practices in Dorset at this time; and significant pottery and animal bone assemblages, particularly from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age and Late Iron Age.