A Late Iron Age to Late Roman Settlement at Draycott Lane, Blockley, Gloucestershire

Archaeological excavation revealed a latest Iron Age to Roman settlement typical of the Cotswold Hills for this period. The fieldwork revealed a complex settlement comprising numerous ditched (and hedged) pens, paddocks and enclosures which had been re-ordered on numerous occasions. The settlement was not enclosed per se but was aligned on a nearby ditched trackway. The emphasis on numerous small enclosures is thought to indicate that livestock management was the dominant economic activity of the occupants. Sieving recovered few charred cereal seeds and no facilities for cereal processing (such as corn driers) or storage were recorded. The faunal remains indicated a typical range of stock animals dominated by cattle followed by sheep and pig with some horse. Few finds were indicative of any wealth and the settlement was probably that of an ordinary farming community comprised of several related families. As with many settlement across southern England the site originated in the mid 1st century AD, flourished in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD only to decline and then be abandoned in the 4th century AD. There were no indications of later occupation until the site was overlain by Medieval ditches and ridge and furrow field system.