EDO5692 - Shapwick Road, Hamworthy, Poole; excavation 2005-6

Thames Valley Archaeological Services carried out an excavation of land to the south of Shapwick Road, Hamworthy, between September 2005 and January 2006. The site had been subject to earlier archaeological evaluation and investigation. Eight excavation areas were investigated, being the footprints of eight new blocks of flats at the western end of the site. The excavation revealed a complex series of features dating primarily from the late Iron Age and Roman period. There was some evidence for Late Iron Age settlement, with round houses, pits, and ditches. Two substantial ditches on a NW-SE alignment were investigated and appear to date to the end of the Iron Age or very early Roman period and are probably defensive in character. The evidence for it being a Roman military site was not conclusive. There was evidence for extensive saltmaking in the 1st century AD in the form of many ditches and gullies filled with briquetage.This activity appears to have continued into the 3rd century, but by the mid-3rd century the site appears to have been abandoned.