Barcombe Villa - 2007
- David Rudling and Chris Butler (March 2007)

Barcombe Villa – A new building, and Saxon occupation?

The 2006 season saw some changes in the organisation of the Barcombe Villa excavations, with UCL withdrawing from the project, leaving MSFAT and the University of Sussex as the remaining two bodies involved in running the project.

Our objective for the 2006 season was to confirm the south-west corner of the villa complex, which we thought we had found in 2005, and to start investigating the courtyard area between the from wall of the villa complex and the villa building itself. We were therefore surprised to find, that as we stripped back the topsoil with a JCB, a completely unexpected building was located outside the villa courtyard in the south-west corner.

The south-west corner of the courtyard wall was found in 2005, and we have now traced this turning north-west and heading towards the west end of the main villa building. Last year we found what appeared to be the flint foundations of a buttress at the south-west corner of the courtyard wall. It is now clear that there was an entrance or gap in the wall between the corner and a short stretch of wall adjoining the new building to the west. The flint ‘buttress’ appears to have been intended to narrow the width of this entrance. We also found clear evidence for the demolition of the courtyard wall. A deposit of flint nodules, with discrete dumps of mortar, and mixed with fragments of tile and flint flakes and shattered pieces of flint, lying on the west side of the wall, appears to be debris from the demolition of the wall. The flint flakes and shattered pieces are all fresh and originate from the use of a pickaxe to demolish the wall, or from the use of a hammer to clean off the mortar from the flint nodules. The discovery of some late Saxon pottery sherds in this deposit gives us a clear date for the demolition.

The new building only survives as the chalk foundations of a simple building comprising a single large rectangular space, with two smaller rooms added to each side at the southern end. It is possible that the large room was subdivided, but no evidence for this survives, as demolition and later plough damage has removed everything to below floor level. It is difficult to assign a purpose for this building, but is could be agricultural or living accommodation. The two additional rooms at the southern end suggest that it may have had an impressive façade to match the façade of the aisled barn in the south-east corner of the complex, provided symmetry to visitors approaching from this way along the approach road. Although there is little to provide a date for this building, if it was there before the courtyard wall was erected, it might provide an explanation for the unusual angle this wall takes from its south-west corner towards the main villa building.

Within the courtyard, we found a number of features that help us to develop the story of the site. A line of postholes extends across the courtyard from east to west, roughly parallel to the south wall of the courtyard. Two very large postholes in this alignment seem to be a gateway, and this whole fence structure is likely to have been the southern boundary to an earlier phase of the villa complex, before it was enlarged and replaced by the wall. It turns to the north-west immediately before reaching the later boundary wall on the west side, and follows a similar direction, perhaps also respecting the new building we have found.

A number of later Saxon features were also discovered this year within the courtyard, and provides our first real evidence for Saxon occupation at the site. The first feature was a Sunken Featured Building (SFB), and was located astride the fence line mentioned above. It comprises a shallow oval depression some 4m x 2m in size, with a large posthole at either end, and a line of stakeholes along each side. Although severely truncated by ploughing, a number of sherds of Saxon pottery were recovered during the excavation from its lower fill. Nearby, a deep Saxon cesspit was excavated, and a Saxon pit had been discovered close by in 2005.

The field around the villa had been put down to set-aside in 2006, so we took the opportunity to carry out some trial trenching elsewhere in the field, targeting known or suspected features identified from the geophysical surveys we have carried out. A long trench to the south of the villa complex failed to find any evidence for a road approaching the villa from the River Ouse and the London-Lewes Roman Road, although a shallow Roman ditch on the right alignment may be a surviving flanking ditch. A possible prehistoric ditch was also discovered.

Another ditch, running east-west and perhaps fronting the villa complex was found on the south-east side, and although it could not be found on the south-west side, a lynchet suggests that fields were located immediately in front of the villa. Perhaps the most interesting discovery was at the top of the hill above the villa and on its west side. A geophysical survey had shown that there were some possible features here, so a number of test trenches were excavated. One of theses located a well-preserved ditch at a depth of over 0.5m below the surface, together with a possible metalled surface. The ditch produced quantities of Roman pottery, including a possible votive miniature amphora or flask from a ditch terminal, and some cremated bone. We are wondering whether this is a possible shrine, however as the remains are well preserved and in no immediate danger from ploughing, we have backfilled this area and may return to it later in the project.

In 2007, we will be completing the excavation of the new building, and then extending the trench to uncover the remainder of the villa courtyard. Here we expect to discover more roundhouses, and perhaps features associated with the activities going on in the courtyard during the height of the villa’s life, and will also investigate the important Bronze Age round barrow in front of the main villa building.