Museum of London Archeology dig unearths Iron age and Roman Empire settlement in Nottinghamshire near Coddington and Newark

An archaeological dig has revealed fresh signs that the Roman Empire once put down roots in the area.

Although still in the early stages of the project, experts from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) have been hard at work piecing together the history of what is believed to be an late Iron Age to early Roman Empire agricultural settlement, roughly 2,000 to 2,500 years old.

So far, two stone wells have been unearthed, as well as a number of livestock watering holes, animal bones and pottery fragments within clear enclosed boundaries similar to modern farming fields.

The site, near Coddington, was found during the process of establishing archaeological importance as part of a planning application in the area.

Archaeolgists have asked for its exact location not to be disclosed until investigative works have been completed in late August to early September, for fear it will be disturbed.

Simon Mortimer, the developer’s archaeological consultant on site, said: “We all have stories to tell, but the last thing we want to do is turn up on a Monday morning and find holes dug all around the site and the best finds gone in the back of somebody’s van.”

The site was most likely inhabited by poor, agricultural workers and that nothing which could be classed as treasure — precious metals or stashes of coins — had been discovered.

The location of the settlement, just off the A1, may also not be a coincidence as the road was originally constructed as a major trade route through Britain by the Romans.

What at first may seems to be a vast and empty patch of dirt then comes to life when noticing the grid like pattern of darker shaded soil where mounded field boundaries and structure walls would have once stood.

The two wells found on site would have been constructed by digging several metres down to the water table using metal tipped tools, before a well was then built back up to the surface using stones and finished with clay.

Investigations also reveal the resourcefulness of the people that lived there, with one of the wells believed to have been repurposed from an old watering hole.

These wells may hold some interesting secrets too, if the team are able to recover any items that may have been discarded or dropped into them and which may be better preserved than on other parts of the site.

Unfortunately, the only way to do this and reach the bottom safely is to destroy the wells and document the process.

With hundreds of years of overlapping historical features, the MOLA archaeologists are now working to establish what the relationship was like between the different plots of land on site and build a better idea of what the community was like at the time.

Soil samples will be analysed to work out what the fields were used for, whether that be raising livestock or growing crops and pottery fragments will help to date the settlement.

“In this country, 90% of all archaeology which is done now takes place as a direct result of planning legislation policies,” said Simon.

“We are the first step in a developer getting planning permission. We provide an assessment and establish the history of a site.

“There is a reason archaeology and construction fit together so well. Archaeology is destructive, we destroy things scientifically before the developers can then come in.

“We wouldn’t know anything about this site if not for the development taking place and the only way for us to know more about this landscape is unfortunately through further development.”

Despite claims made across social media that the site dated back to 6,100BC and that large structures had been discovered, Simon wanted to express caution and manage expectations during the early stages of the dig.

He said: “We want to be transparent – it’s not nearly that old. It probably dates from the late Iron Age to early Roman period.

“Believe me, nobody would want to find a Roman bath house or villa more that us but there is just no evidence of that on this site.

“This is just the start of a very long process. We have to break it all down and take it away before we can build it back up again.

“At the moment we are focusing on establishing when the earliest point was and the latest, then we can begin to fill what was happening in between.

“We will get a much better picture by the time we finish in August, but it may take years to fully understand what was here.”

Newark and Sherwood District Council planning officers and councillors as well as members of Coddington Parish Council met with the archaeology team on Friday morning (June 23) to find out more about the site.

The district council has been approached for comment.