Late Iron Age to Early Roman enclosure, inhumation and cremations, Dale Hall Farm (EHER 82166)

Evaluation and excavations recovered a settled agricultural landscape dating to Late Iron Age to Roman period with three distinct phases. The excavation revealed evidence of a primarily agricultural landscape dating predominantly to the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Also uncovered was a small, enclosed cemetery in Area B dated broadly to the late 1st/early 2nd centuries.

Evaluation, 2014 and Excavations, 2015 Archaeological excavations were carried out at Dale Hall Farm, Lawford, Essex. The excavations were conducted in three separate areas of a large development site; Areas A and C revealed an agricultural landscape dating from the Late Iron Age to the mid- late Roman period. Excavations at Dale Hall revealed evidence of a primarily agricultural landscape dating predominantly to the 1st and 2nd centuries. The small, enclosed cemetery in Area B dated broadly to the late 1st/early 2nd centuries. The enclosure itself was orientated north-west to south-east and appeared to have a small entrance in its western corner. It was demarcated by two ditches, AF172, which formed the north-western, northeastern and south-eastern sides and AF180 which formed the south-western side. There was some evidence that the enclosure overlay an earlier enclosure (ditches AF178, AF252, AF256, AF262), however only very small parts of these ditches were visible. Three of these ditches (AF178, AF252 and AF256) contained prehistoric pottery, making a pre-1st to 2nd century date likely. There is no evidence that this earlier enclosure was used for the same purpose as the later one. Situated within the enclosure were an inhumation and five similarly shaped pits, and seven cremations. The inhumation (BF253) was located in the eastern half of the enclosure. It overlay earlier ditch BF256. Within its fill was found 30g of cremated bone, however its almost complete destruction makes it impossible to determine whether this derived from a human or an animal. It contained no uncremated bone or grave goods, but has been positively identified as an inhumation based on the presence of twenty-six iron nails, typically associated with the construction of coffins, within its fill. It is aligned similarly to the enclosure surrounding it. Five other pits all superficially have the appearance of being inhumations as they are all roughly the same size and shape as BF253, and have straight-sides and flat bases. None of these pits are on the same alignment as BF253, nor do they contain any human bone or grave-goods of any kind. They therefore cannot be positively identified as inhumations. Six small pits containing cremated bone were all located centrally within the enclosure ditch. There were no obvious groupings between these cremations, with the possible exception of BF251 and BF254, which were located in close proximity to one another. All six cremations were deposited in vessels that broadly date to the late 1st-early 2nd centuries AD. One vessel (in BF254) was possibly slightly later than this and has a 2nd-3rd century AD date. The group of cremations at Dale Hall appears to be fairly typical of cremation burials in the local area in the late 1st/early 2nd centuries. <1> <2>