Romano-British Settlement and Cemeteries at Mucking: Excavations by Margaret and Tom Jones, 1965–1978

Excavations at Mucking, Essex, between 1965 and 1978, revealed extensive evidence for a multiphase rural Romano-British settlement, perhaps an estate center, and five associated cemetery areas (170 burials) with different burial areas reserved for different groups within the settlement. The settlement demonstrated clear continuity from the preceding Iron Age occupation with unbroken sequences of artifacts and enclosures through the first century AD, followed by rapid and extensive remodeling, which included the laying out a Central Enclosure and an organized water supply with wells, accompanied by the start of large-scale pottery production. After the mid-second century AD the Central Enclosure was largely abandoned and settlement shifted its focus more to the Southern Enclosure system with a gradual decline though the 3rd and 4th centuries although continued burial, pottery and artifactual deposition indicate that a form of settlement continued, possibly with some low-level pottery production. Some of the latest Roman pottery was strongly associated with the earliest Anglo-Saxon style pottery suggesting the existence of a terminal Roman settlement phase that essentially involved an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ community. Given recent revisions of the chronology for the early Anglo-Saxon period, this casts an intriguing light on the transition, with radical implications for understandings of this period. Each of the cemetery areas was in use for a considerable length of time. Taken as a whole, Mucking was very much a componented place/complex; it was its respective parts that fostered its many cemeteries, whose diverse rites reflect the variability and roles of the settlement’s evidently varied inhabitants. Table of Contents Contents Chapter One: Roman Mucking – Many Things Background and Prehistoric Sequence Situation, Excavation Context and Methods Base-line Sources Site Phasing and Analysis Volume Structure Chapter Two: The Settlement Sequence Conquest Period Components - A Sketch Phase 1 - Later First/Early Second Century AD The Central Enclosure The Western Enclosures The Southern Enclosures Phase 2 - Early Second to Mid Third Century AD The Central Enclosure The Southern Enclosures Pits Phase 3 - Mid Third to Fourth Centuries AD Discussion - Settlement Sequence, Pits and Building Parallels Pits Structures Site Sequence Chapter Three: Settlement Finds Metalwork Roman Coinage Richard Reece Base Silver Finger-ring Martin Henig Roman Brooches Colin Haselgrove Other Copper Alloy Artefacts Grahame Appleby Lead Artefacts Quita Mould Iron Artefacts Quita Mould Other Finds Quern Stones David Buckley and Hilary Major Jet Artefacts Chris Going and Sam Lucy Glass Jennifer Price, D. Charlesworth and Donald Harden Pottery Samian Wares Joanna Bird and Brenda Dickinson Mortaria Kay Hartley Amphorae David Williams Romano-British Pottery Rosemary Jefferies and Sam Lucy Grafitti Chris Going Pottery Petrology David Williams Other Ceramic Finds Clay Figurines Catherine Johns and F. Jenkins Ceramic Building Material M.U. Jones with a note on Animal Foot Prints on Roman Tiles (Leslie Cram) Fired Clay and Daub Paul Barford and Grahame Appleby Textile Impressions Elizabeth Crowfoot Economic Data Animal Bone Krish Seetah and Geraldine Done Mollusca from Pit 373Nx407E J. Cooper Carbonised Grain from Corn-drier 3 Marijke van der Veen Discussion - Distributions and Depositions Distributions Depositional Case-studies Chapter Four: The Cemeteries Cemetery I Cemetery II Cemetery III Cemetery IV Cemetery V Smaller Cemetery Groups Discussion - Rites and Practices Nailed Footwear - Overview (Quita Mould) Pottery Use and Deposition (Rosemary Jefferies) Personal Ornaments Contexts of Burial Chapter Five: Integrating Parts - Settlement and Cemeteries Transitions (I) - Iron Age/Roman The Pottery Industry Distinguishing Functional Difference Pottery Analysis Well 4 (Redux) Metalwork and Other Category Distributions Sets for the Living (and Dead) Economic Basis Ritual Components Interrelating Cemeteries and Settlement Explaining and Naming Roman Mucking - An Estate Centre (+ Village) Transitions (II) - Roman/Anglo-Saxon (Phase 4) Bibliography Appendix 1 Pottery imports from southeast England to Hadrian’s Wall.