Monument record 0795600000 - West of Cheddington

Mid-late Iron Age enclosures identified during excavation. More substantial ditches coincide with the edge of the high dry ground of the chalk outcrop. One ditch appears to have cordoned off the area containing the double and single burial. Remains of burnt pits and postholes were also located in this area. Roman activity characterised by the laying out of sub-rectangular enclosures. Substantial assemblages of Roman pottery recovered (B1).
Roman activity was revealed in the central part of the site, within Trenches 5 and 6. No evidence for contemporary activity was identified in the adjacent fields, with the exception of a residual sherd of Roman pottery within a later furrow in Trench 7. The ditches were broadly aligned north-east to south-west and north-west to south-east. Evidence of multiple recuts of some of the ditches indicate several phases of activity. The finds assemblage suggests a settlement nearby (B2).
A series of linear features with associated pits were identified and dated to to the Late Iron Age-Early Roman period. These included a sub-rectangular enclosure. A partially-articulated skeleton of a cow had been buried within the ditch. During the Early Roman period the landscape underwent modification. The enclosure of the Late Iron Age was abandoned and replaced with another sub-rectangular enclosure, formed from a near U-shaped ditch and linear ditch. The U-shaped ditch seems to have been short-lived and purposely backfilled in a single event and replaced with a rectangular enclosure. The enclosure and ditch layout of the Early Roman period continued into Later Roman period with slight modification. Two grave pits were located towards the western part of the enclosure. One contained 2 adult females, aligned south-west to north-east. The younger of these was associated with bones of an unborn foetus. A fragment of peri-natal ulna bone was recovered from the enclosure ditch and may indicate further burials in the area, or possibly the discarding of infant remains in the ditch. (B3).