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A Roman Pond at Wyre Piddle, Worcestershire, with a Brief Survey of Ponds in Roman Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2016

Derek Hurst ,
Nicholas Daffern ,
Laura Griffin ,
Katie Head ,
Andrew Mann ,
Elizabeth Pearson  and
Sylvia Warman
Derek Hurst
Affiliation:
Archive & Archaeology Service, Worcestershire County Council [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Nicholas Daffern
Affiliation:
Wardell Armstrong [email protected]
Laura Griffin
Affiliation:
Archive & Archaeology Service, Worcestershire County Council [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Katie Head
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Plymouth University [email protected]
Elizabeth Pearson
Affiliation:
Archive & Archaeology Service, Worcestershire County Council [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Sylvia Warman
Affiliation:
Historic England [email protected]
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Abstract

Artificial Roman ponds present in various guises, but they are relatively rarely found in the service of rural agriculture. This article focuses on a possible example of this type from Worcestershire, where extensive excavation has been carried out. The results demonstrate the potential of a pond for the reconstruction of wider landscape usage, while the considerable quantity of associated finds potentially sheds some light on social practice. A review of similar sites across Roman Britain suggests there may be practical (in essence curatorial) issues about the fuller investigation of such features once identified, in order that a similarly high level of data can be achieved more regularly, and suggests a need for prospection/mapping for the better management of this resource, especially employing newly available LiDAR data.

Keywords

Roman pondsRoman agricultureWyre Piddlelandscapeenvironmental evidencefeastingritual deposition
Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 47 , November 2016 , pp. 169 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2016. Published by The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 

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References

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