Grad601The Noah’s Ark Inn, Frilford CASE STUDY... CASE STUDY Grad601The Noah’s Ark Inn, Frilford...
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www.bartington.com CASE STUDY Grad601 The Noah’s Ark Inn, Frilford This survey was undertaken to investigate a site already known from aerial photographic survey and previous excavations to contain important Iron Age and Romano-British archaeological features. The geology is sand and limestone of the Corallian ridge. The geophysical survey confirmed the main elements of the aerial photographic evidence and provided a much clearer indication of a large enclosure. In particular its western limit, which was not visible on aerial photographs, was defined for the first time. Although the enclosure’s northern ditch is straight, its eastern and western ditches are convex. Within the eastern and northern ditches is a smaller ditch, possibly a palisade trench. There is however no clear evidence for such an internal ditch on the West. As suggested by the aerial photographs, the main enclosure also contains a range of smaller enclosures some of which are circular. A smaller enclosure of possibly similar shape to the main enclosure is located in the South-East. In addition there is evidence for rubbish or storage pits. An entrance to the main enclosure is located in the East but it is possible there may have been more than one entrance. To the North of this enclosure are the remaining foundations of the southern section of a wall which encloses a known Romano- British temple further to the North. The line of this wall is lost in the West and it is possible CS 006 16/08 Figure 1. Geophysical Survey of Noah’s Ark Inn, Frilford. (Grids are 30 metre squares. North is at the top.) Figure 2. Geophysical survey of Noah’s Ark Inn, Frilford. (Interpretation.)
Transcript of Grad601The Noah’s Ark Inn, Frilford CASE STUDY... CASE STUDY Grad601The Noah’s Ark Inn, Frilford...
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Y Grad601The Noah’s Ark Inn, Frilford
This survey was undertaken to investigate a site already known from aerial photographic survey and previous excavations to contain important Iron Age and Romano-British archaeological features. The geology is sand and limestone of the Corallian ridge.
The geophysical survey confirmed the main elements of the aerial photographic evidence and provided a much clearer indication of a large enclosure. In particular its western limit, which was not visible on aerial photographs, was defined for the first time. Although the enclosure’s northern ditch is straight, its eastern and western ditches are convex. Within the eastern and northern ditches is a smaller ditch, possibly a palisade trench.
There is however no clear evidence for such an internal ditch on the West. As suggested by the aerial photographs, the main enclosure also contains a range of smaller enclosures some of which are circular. A smaller enclosure of possibly similar shape to the main enclosure is located in the South-East. In addition there is evidence for rubbish or storage pits. An entrance to the main enclosure is located in the East but it is possible there may have been more than one entrance.
To the North of this enclosure are the remaining foundations of the southern section of a wall which encloses a known Romano-British temple further to the North. The line of this wall is lost in the West and it is possible
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Figure 1. Geophysical Survey of Noah’s Ark Inn, Frilford. (Grids are 30 metre squares. North is at the top.)
Figure 2. Geophysical survey of Noah’s Ark Inn, Frilford. (Interpretation.)
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that it bends South towards the southern enclosure. North of the wall and within the temple compound is an area of considerable magnetic disturbance on the east of which is a large, irregular circular feature. It is unclear whether this magnetic disturbance is a reflection of underlying archaeology or more modern ground disturbance such as spoil heaps or backfill. Visible in the northernmost grid is the outline of the eastern part of the Romano-British temple portico and cella.
The survey grids were laid out with respect to an existing survey and excavation grid and are aligned North-South. As a result many of the grids could only be partially surveyed as the site was surrounded by hedges and other vegetation. Some grids were walked in a parallel style and others in a zig-zag style. A 1-metre traverse separation was used with a traverse resolution of 4 readings per metre. The instrument’s sensitivity was set to 0.1 nT.
