Essex Archaeological News,
Autumn 1973 (No 44)
RIVENHALL.
The training excavation at
Rivenhall this year was during the month of August, and this year the dig has
moved away from the church itself to the North East corner of the church yard.
This is the corner nearest to
the Roman aisled barn, and the Villa, which are in the field beyond the church
yard hedge.
The ground level in this
corner is significantly raised above that of the field to the North, inferring
that the Northern hedge is an old boundary, and that some redeposition has
occurred in the church yard area.
Warwick was sure that the
corner had been added to the medieval church yard, and excavation has shown
this to be so since a boundary ditch follows a drop off in level and cuts off
much of the corner.
Excavation has revealed the
omnipresent Roman 'cobbled level, and a robbed Roman wall trench associated
with the higher levels of the church yard. Above, and reaching down to this
Roman gravelly level are Saxon burials, puzzling since here they are so far
from the church proper.
The number and density seems
high, and these cannot have been covered with much more than a foot of soil,
which is typical of early burials.
Below the burials, where the
ground appears to form a shelf, there is a medieval level, possibly a house
site, where a discrete defined area is covered with gravel make-up. This level
contains a varied collection of pottery and oyster shells which seem to have
been used as part of the make-up.
Coins, however do not feature
as make-up, and these together with a gilt hinged cross ornament, have led
Warwick to believe this may be the site of a rectory, associated with the
church, and adjacent in medieval times.
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