Description

Summary: 1 piece of animal bone (rib) from the Middle Saxon iron smelting site at Ramsbury, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, excavated by Jeremy Haslam in 1974, supported by the Department of the Environment through the Wiltshire Archaeological Committee.

Research results

A Middle Saxon iron smelting and smithing site at Ramsbury, Wiltshire, dating to the late 8th century and early 9th century AD. The industrial structures consist of bowl furnaces and associated features of at least three phases, and include a timber structure. The site is important because of its relatively good state of preservation, and because the furnaces show a sequence of technological innovation over a short period. Associated finds include quantities of animal bone, as well as some pottery, bronze and iron artefacts and fragments of imported lava querns. This and other evidence hints at patronage by an important royal estate.

As part of a wider Historic England survey of Animal husbandry at Early Medieval, Medieval, and Post-Medieval sites in Southern England, Holmes (2017) has compared the Early Medieval animal bone assemblages from Market Lavington, Ramsbury, and Cadley Road. They found that sheep were slaughtered at prime meat-production age throughout the period at all three sites, with a similar story for Cattle except for at Ramsbury, where cattle were slaughtered much later in life. Alveolar recession was noted in 33% of sheep, over twice the national average, suggesting a genetic predisposition in the local population, whilst foot pathologies of cattle were unusually common at Early Saxon Market Lavington, suggesting they may have been used as draught animals early on at this site.