Introduction
We were invited to evaluate the geoarchaeology of a site at Temple Back, Bristol, to help the excavating archaeologists, both in understanding the origins of the deposits and in assessing the archaeological potential of the site.
Background
The bedrock of the area was known to be the Lower Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group, and we found the soils to resemble Pelo-Alluvial gley soils, which are ground water gley soils with a distinct topsoil. The site lies on a floodplain to the south west of the River Avon, which maintains a high water table in the area of the site due to groundwater recharge. At the time of our visit the site was within an urban area of Bristol undergoing redevelopment.
A trench had been dug across the site in which we able to examine deposits visible in the sides. A later coring operation was also carried out in order to provide samples for analysis.
Findings
The cores we examined represented a sequence of both natural and archaeological deposits, taken along two transects, that showed us that the deposits came from a channel, that ran towards the river. This channel had then been gradually filled in over time due to material being dumped into it.
Conclusions
From our investigations, we were able to the client that the deposits we looked at could be divided into three parts vertically. The lowest was a natural silty clay and clay silt alluvium, above this, largely undisturbed and horizontally laminated clays and silts with bands of archaeological material, and finally, the upper part which was made up of a mixture of occupation debris and building material. The deposits were well preserved and provided good possibilities for further analysis that may provide a better understanding of the types of activities that produced the material that was dumped.