Site of Iron Age red hill, 'Red Hill VIII', south of Goldhanger (EHER 12123)

Now destroyed. The site of a Red Hill, and Iron Age or Roman salt industry, excavated in 1908-1909 by the Red Hills Exploration Committee. Medieval pottery was also found.

1908-1909. Archaeological excavation. Red hill, excavated in 1908-1909, by the Red Hills Exploration Committee, Hill VIII Goldhanger. The hill contained a succession of floors and flues. The floors consisted of a hard material burnt yellow. Roman pottery came from the floors and from in and around the flues, including Samian ware. Other finds included bones of domestic animals and shells. Below the extreme eastern edge of the red earth was a midden containing masses of oyster and mussel shells, animal bones and Roman pottery, including 'large jars with a heavy rolled rim'. Red earth from the mound had been spread over it. The excavators believed that this midden and the Roman finds from the mound represented the occupation and reuse of the hill, which itself was pre-Roman, in Roman times. <1> <2> <3> No 78 in Rodwell's list. <4> 'Red hill' mentioned in Colchester Museum records. <5> <6> NRHE data transfer: (TL90820820 - Red Hill No VIII - Goldhanger <2> ). Excavations in 1908-1909 revealed typical burnt soil briquetage and Iron Age/Roman pottery, connected with the salt industry (see EHER 12107 for type site). A midden revealed that the site had been re-occupied in the Roman period and still later a number of flues had been built into the mound, possibly also connected with the salt industry but using a more sophisticated process. Much pottery and also Samian was found connected with the two later phases. Some medieval pottery was also found. <2> September 1972. Field survey. No trace. The site of this Red Hill is now occupied by a modern sewage farm. <7> Note: This record was originally mapped to the full extent of the two fields to the immediate west of the mapped point. It has been reduced to a point using the information provided by the NRHE data transfer.