Test Trenches at Arlington Roman Villa.

Earlier this year we carried out a resistivity survey and fieldwalking at a Roman site near to Arlington reservoir. Over a number of years local metal detectorists had been finding Roman coins and other artefacts at the site, but now wanted to know more about their site.

The geophysics results suggested that there might be buildings and other features present, so over the weekend of the 4^th and 5^th of October a team of MSFAT members together with some of the metal detectorists and members of my Eastbourne evening class gathered at the field to excavate some test pits to examine some of these features.

A total of five test pits were excavated, features recorded and then backfilled. Trench 1 an east-west orientated wall constructed from flint, and incorporating a large ironstone block was found. Trench 2 revealed an area of flint metalling resembling the edge of the agger of a Roman road, again running east-west. The remains of a possible flint wall orientated the same way was also found in the trench. Trench 3 also produced an area of what appeared to be flint metalling, but could be a wall with a scatter of disturbed flints on either side. Trench 4 found the possible corner of a flint wall, whilst Trench 5 was completely sterile.

Small amounts of Roman pottery were found in each trench, together with some nails and the occasional tile fragment, but not in the same quantity or quality as we have been finding at Barcombe. The conditions were not ideal for this excavation as the ground was baked dry, making it impossible to see any cut features. It does appear that there may be a metalled Roman track or road heading east to west across the site with a number of possible buildings with flint wall foundations beside it. However, the possible flint walls were only bonded with clay and the small size of the trenches means that we were only able to see a small part of the site. The only way we are really going to be able to understand the site and answer the remaining questions is to be able to excavate a much larger trench.

The results of this excavation will be published in due course, and therefore the short summary above should be considered as an interim statement.