Introduction
We were invited by the excavating archaeologists to evaluate the geoarchaeology of this site and to try to answer questions they had about some of the deposits they had found.
Background
The bedrock of the area was known to be Lower Jurassic and we found the soils on the site to be shallow well drained calcareous clayey soils. The site was next to the Fosse Way and lay on an area of well drained, gently sloping land, to the south of the River Sheppey.
The site had been excavated over a wide area and a large amount of Roman archaeology could be seen.
Findings
In one of the samples we examined, we saw a light sandy deposit that contained pieces of unweathered limestone. Towards the top of another sample we noticed that it contained fragments of charcoal and ceramics. A third sample had a darker deposit towards the base that had the appearance of a buried soil.
Conclusions
From our investigations, we were able to tell the excavating archaeologists that the light sandy deposit was not entirely natural, and that the pieces of unweathered limestone were most likely road building material that had been washed in off a former Roman road surface of the Fosse Way. The deposit at the top of one sample which contained fragments of charcoal and ceramics was a buried soil and archaeological material had been worked down into it by roots and worms. The darker deposit in the third sample was not a buried soil, but the result of the downward limit at which roots and worms could reach, because of the bedrock below, and the formation of iron and manganese concretions.