Studies in the Roman and Medieval Archaeology of Exeter

666 Pages·2021·57.057 MB·English

by  Stephen Rippon, Neil Holbrook (eds.)

STUDIES IN THE ROMAN AND MEDIEVAL
ARCHAEOLOGY OF EXETER

STUDIES IN THE ROMAN AND
MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF EXETER
Edited by
STEPHEN RIPPON AND NEIL HOLBROOK
with contributions from
JOHN ALLAN, KAMAL BADRESHANY, PAUL BIDWELL, HUGO BLAKE,
ANDREW BROWN, DAVID DUNGWORTH, CARLOTTA GARDNER, NICKY GARLAND,
DAVID GOULD, ALEJANDRA GUTIÉRREZ, JONATHAN HART, NEIL HOLBROOK,
MICHAEL HUGHES, ROBERT KENYON, MANDY KINGDOM, MALENE LAURITSEN,
SARA MACHIN, SAM MOORHEAD, ANDREW PYE, STEPHEN RIPPON,
RUTH SHAFFREY, ROGER TAYLOR, CATHY TYERS AND PETER WARRY
EAPIT
Exeter:
A Place in Time
EXETER: A PLACE IN TIME 2/EXETER ARCHAEOLOGICAL REPORT 8
Oxford & Philadelphia
Published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by
OXBOW BOOKS
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© Oxbow Books and the individual contributors 2021
Hardcover Edition: 978-1-78925-619-2
Digital Edition: 978-1-78925-622-2 (epub)
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This monograph was published with the aid of a grant from Historic England.
Title page image: The Common Seal of Exeter. Made c. 1200 and still used in the early 20th century, this large silver seal matrix
is the earliest example of a civic seal surviving in Britain. The inscription reads ‘+SIGILLUM CIVITATIS
EXONIE’ – the seal of the city of Exeter. The reverse records the maker named Luke and the donor, the wealthy
Exeter citizen William Prudum.
Front cover: The Princesshay excavations in 2006 looking south-west towards the cathedral (© Gary Young, Exeter Archaeology)
Back cover: Exeter Museums Archaeological Field Unit Finds Officer Graham Langman examining the Roman pottery from the
Coombe Street excavations.
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables xv
List of Appendices xvii
List of Abbreviations xviii
List of Contributors xix
Preface and Acknowledgements xxii
Summary xxiii
Foreign Language Summaries xxiv
1. Introduction: Studies in the Roman and Medieval Archaeology of Exeter 1
Stephen Rippon and Neil Holbrook
2. Summaries of the Excavations within the City of Exeter 1812–2019 5
David Gould, Andrew Pye and Stephen Rippon
3. Roman Exeter: The Fortress Plan and Gazetteers of Evidence for the Street Plans and Stone Buildings 51
Paul Bidwell and David Gould
Section 3.1 The plan and buildings of the legionary fortress at Exeter 51
Paul Bidwell
Section 3.2 G azetteer of observations of the streets associated with the fortress and early town 67
David Gould
Section 3.3 G azetteer of observations of the streets associated with the expanded later town 75
David Gould
Section 3.4 G azetteer of buildings associated with the early town 78
David Gould
Section 3.5 G azetteer of buildings associated with the later town 83
David Gould
4. Medieval Documentary Evidence Relating to the High Street, Trichay Street and Goldsmith 93
Street Excavations
John Allan
5. Excavations at Trichay Street and Pancras Lane, 1972–3 139
Nicky Garland, John Allan and Neil Holbrook
6. Excavations at Goldsmith Street Area III, 1971–2 189
Neil Holbrook, John Allan and Jonathan Hart
7. Excavations at 196–7 High Street, 1972–4 213
John Allan, Nicky Garland and Neil Holbrook
8. Excavations at Rack Street, 1974–5 and 1977–8 241
Nicky Garland, Neil Holbrook and John Allan
9. The Faunal Remains from Exeter, 1976–1990 271
Malene Lauritsen
vi Contents
10. Archaeometallurgy: An Assessment of Roman and Medieval Crucibles and Other Possible 285
Metalworking Debris
Carlotta Gardner and David Dungworth
11. Dendrochronology: The Roman and Medieval Timbers from Exeter 297
Cathy Tyers
12. Pottery Supply in Roman Exeter and the South-West 309
Paul Bidwell, with contributions by Kamal Badreshany and Roger T. Taylor
13.1 Roman Ceramic Building Material: Introduction 339
Stephen Rippon and Neil Holbrook
13.2 Roman Brick and Tile Production in Devon 341
Sara Machin
13.3 An Analysis of the Roman Ceramic Building Material Industry in Devon Using pXRF 369
Peter Warry
14. The Querns and Millstones of Roman Exeter: Supplying and Feeding the Fortress and Town 415
Ruth Shaffrey
15. Can Analysis of Claudian Bronze Coins Found at Exeter Usefully Contribute to the Debate for 427
an ‘Earlier’ or ‘Later’ Claudio-Neronian Origin for the Legionary Fortress?
Robert Kenyon
16. The Roman Coins from Exeter and its Hinterland 435
Andrew Brown and Sam Moorhead
17. The Local, Regional and Other North European Pottery, 900–1550 461
John Allan, with contributions from Michael Hughes and Roger T. Taylor
18. The South European Pottery, 1250–1550 515
Alejandra Gutiérrez and Hugo Blake, with contributions from Kamal Badreshany and Michael Hughes
19. Exeter’s Medieval Cemeteries: A Bioarchaeological Analysis 563
Mandy Kingdom
Bibliography 589
Index 623
List of Figures
1.1 The nomenclature used for the different phases of Exeter’s gates 3
2.1 Excavations within the historic core of Exeter 6
2.2 Excavations within the immediate hinterland of Exeter 7
2.3 Plan of the Roman and medieval features at 41–42 High Street 22
2.4 Plan of Roman civil features at Friernhay Street 24
2.5 Development of the Paul Street site 25
2.6 Section through Paul Street’s town defences 26
2.7 The development of the Lower Coombe Street site during the Roman military period 31
3.1 Henderson’s schematic reconstruction of the fortress plan 52
3.2 Latin terminology for the different parts of the fortress 53
3.3 Revised plan of the fortress 55
3.4 Excavations at Queen Street and Goldsmith Street in 1978–9 56
3.5 Excavations at Bartholomew Street East in 1980–1 57
3.6 Excavations at Friernhay Street in 1981, showing the earliest military features 58
3.7 Excavations at Preston Street in 1976–7, showing barrack remains 59
3.8 The probable immunes barracks south-east of cohort block C 62
3.9 Buildings excavated south-west of South Street in 1945–6 65
3.10 Military features at 41–2 High Street in 1980 66
3.11 Excavations at Friernhay Street in 1981, showing latest military features 67
3.12 Streets of the legionary fortress 69
3.13 Streets of the early civil period 70
3.14 Streets of the late civil period 76
3.15 Buildings of the early civil period 79
3.16 Buildings of the late civil period 84
4.1 Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:500 map of 1876 94
4.2 Extracts from Braun and Hogenburg’s engraving of 1618 and Sherwood’s map of c. 1630 95
4.3 Extract from Map 13 of the Map Book of the Chamber of 1756–60 95
4.4 Extracts from Coldridge’s map of Exeter of 1819, OS 1:500 map of 1876,
and the Goad insurance map of 1888 96
4.5 John White Abbott’s ‘The High Street, Exeter, in 1797’
and a mid 19th-century view of the same 97
4.6 Photogrammetric survey of the frontages of 195–203 High Street 97
4.7 The ownership of the High Street properties c. 1522, with their ancient rents 98
4.8 Portrait of Elizabeth Flay 99
4.9 Portrait of Joan Tuckfield 105
4.10 200 High Street 108
4.11 Late medieval housing at 17–19 Waterbeer Street 109
4.12 4 Waterbeer Street 113
4.13 207 High Street depicted in John White Abbott’s view of High Street in 1797 116
4.14 Reconstructions of those in possession of 194–207 High Street c. 1265–85 and c. 1320 118
4.15 Reconstructions of those in possession of 194–207 High Street c. 1340 and in 1349 119
viii List of Figures
4.16 Reconstructions of those in possession of 194–207 High Street c. 1359–60 120
4.17 Reconstruction of those in possession of 194–207 High Street in 1377 121
4.18 Reconstructions of those in possession of 194–207 High Street in 1400–5 and c. 1420 122
4.19 Reconstructions of those in possession of 194–207 High Street in 1440 and 1460 123
4.20 Reconstructions of those in possession of 194–207 High Street c. 1470 and in 1475–80 124
4.21 Reconstruction of those in possession of 194–207 High Street in 1500–09 125
4.22 Reconstructions of owners and occupiers of 194–207 High Street in 1552 126
4.23 The excavated properties in Goldsmith Street and their neighbours 127
4.24 Waterbeer Street and Pancras Lane in the 20th century 128
4.25 The block of properties between Waterbeer Street and Trichay Street 129
4.26 41–6 North Street as depicted in the Hedgeland model of c. 1820 131
4.27 Suggested reconstructions of those in possession of properties in Waterbeer Street
and Trichay Street in 1315–36 and 1351–82 135
4.28 Suggested reconstructions of those in possession of properties
in Waterbeer Street and Trichay Street in 1453 and 1520 137
5.1 Location of the Trichay Street, Goldsmith Street Area III
and 196–7 High Street excavation areas 140
5.2 Development of Trichay Street site during
the later prehistoric and Roman military periods 141
5.3 Development of Trichay Street site during the Roman civil period 142
5.4 Development of Trichay Street site during the medieval period 143
5.5 Plan of Period 1 (later prehistoric) structures 144
5.6 The aisled hall of the military fabrica with later
prehistoric buildings in the background 145
5.7 Plan of Period 2: Roman military buildings within the legionary fortress 146
5.8 Plan of Period 3a (late 1st to early 2nd century AD) activity 147
5.9 Period 3a timber-lined well 348 148
5.10 Section BB, south-facing section across well 22 149
5.11 Plan of Period 3b (late 1st to early 2nd century AD) buildings RC1–7 151
5.12 Plan of Period 3c (Hadrianic or early Antonine) buildings RC8–9 154
5.13 Plan of Period 3d (mid 2nd to early 3rd century AD) buildings RC11–12 155
5.14 Plan of Period 3e (mid 3rd to late 4th century AD) buildings RC13–14 and Period 3f yard 157
5.15 General view of the heavily robbed remains of the late Roman town house RC13 159
5.16 Plan of Period 3f (mid to late 4th century AD) building RC15 161
5.17 Postulated extent of Period 3e Late Roman town house RC13 165
5.18 The relationship of the excavations to the surrounding historic street plan 168
5.19 Plan of Period 6 (10th to 12th-century) features 170
5.20 Pit 347 with its wattle lining and timber props 171
5.21 Wattle-lined pit 191 173
5.22 Plan of Periods 7 (c. 1200–1350) and 8 (c. 1350–1550) 174
5.23 Early 13th-century limekiln 360 175
5.24 Lime-slaking pit 193 176
5.25 The collapsed wattle lining of pit 365 177
5.26 Stone-lined pit 169 179
5.27 Stone-lined pit 316 180
5.28 Late Saxon timbers W.80–3 186
5.29 Tongue-and-grooved construction techniques 187
6.1 Plan of Period 2: Roman military barrack blocks in Goldsmith Street Areas I–III 191
6.2 Plan of Period 3b (late 1st to early 2nd centuries AD) 192
6.3 Plan of Period 3c (earlier 2nd to ?earlier 3rd century AD) buildings RC1–3 194
6.4 Opus signinum floor within Room 4 of building RC3 195
6.5 Plan of Period 3d (3rd to 4th centuries AD) buildings RC4 and 5 197
6.6 Channelled hypocaust within Room 3 of building RC4 199
6.7 Fragment of tessellated floor within Room 3 of building RC4 199
6.8 Plan of Period 6 (900–1200) 202
6.9 Selection of sections of Saxo-Norman pits 203