Find Spot record 0939500000 - W OF TAPLOW COURT

Trial trenching carried out in July and August 1996 by Taplow Court Archaeological Survey Team recovered a large number of pottery sherds, a few worked flints and other post-medieval material (roof tile, slates, brick, stone, clay pipe, animal bone, plaster, glass wine bottles, slag and mortar) from Trench 1. All the recorded contexts were mixed, indicating a considerable degree of disturbance, with none of the finds securely stratified (B1-4).
A total of 2613 sherds were recovered from the TCAST trenches, 2175 of which were scanned for comparison with the assemblage from the Taplow Court excavations by Oxford Archaeology. A total of 40 Early Bronze Age sherds, including a sherd decorated with a single bone-impressed line. The Late Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age sherds included a higher quantity of recognisable forms. Although to a large extent there was a high degree of similarity in fabric and form between this and the assemblage from the OA excavations, there were some significant differences. Although little is known of the disturbed contexts from which this assemblage was recovered, a wider variety of material was recovered from these trenches than from within the hillfort. The Roman pottery was poorly preserved. Sherds were small and chronologically mixed. It seems to have been a redeposited assemblage, much disturbed through later activity. However, the material nevertheless points to the presence of a Late Iron Age and Roman settlement in the vicnity of the site (B5).