Site of Iron Age Settlement on Grimstock Hill

1 Occupation began in 1st century AD and late Iron Age and early Roman pottery have been found.
2 W of the wooden temple, and pre-dating it, was a circular building 12m in diameter, with a central hearth. It is probably one of a number of early Roman or pre-Roman buildings overlain by the Roman temple.
3 Four further round buildings have been excavated within the temple temenos. Clay loomweights, querns, and hand-made pottery have been found with them. Of the same general phase were a ditch and palisade gully. The period of occupation of the buildings is uncertain. Flavian Samian occurs and although the hand-made pottery may be earlier it is not necessarily pre-Roman. Of the five buildings no more than three could be contemporary. They have eaves-drip gullies for structures with turf walls. Two of the buildings may have had external porches. The field system to the S probably has its origin in this period. The site may represent a series of farmhouses perhaps rebuilt by successive generations on slightly different sites. Quern stones, loomweights and spindle-whorls probably indicate a mixed economy.
4 Plan.
5 Interim report.
6 There seems to be some doubts expressed as to the extent of definitively ‘Iron Age’ structures at Grimstock; although problems with absolute dating are acknowledged. There is doubt whether the earliest phases of ritual activity were contemporary with the later roundhouse phases.