Britain in archaeology

Excavation at Nesscliffe Hill Camp near Shrewsbury has revealed semi-circular stone-built guard chambers either side of an inturned entrance passage. The unusual Iron Age hillfort, also known as Oliver’s Point, continued to be occupied in Roman times, and is perched on an inland cliff edge, with a ditch and two bank circuits and divided into two by further earthworks.

A series of new surveys and excavations at the site began in 2018, after a walkover survey of many hillforts in the county by Shropshire and Herefordshire Councils in 2011–12. To inform a management plan designed to restore the fort to heathland and encourage local people to visit, drone photogrammetric, magnetometry and earthwork surveys have been conducted, followed last year by test pitting and auguring, and trial excavations by the University of Oxford. One trench was dug across the rampart and another across the entrance into the western enclosure, which has been cleared of trees. Guard chambers are known at other forts in the Welsh Marches, but are rare elsewhere. Further excavation is planned.

Brooches are common fare for detectorists – the Portable Antiquities Scheme database hasmore has more than 48,000 examples. Yet it is still possible for finds liaison officers to see new newtypes. types. This

Roman brooch (4.5cm long) in the formof form of a solid copper-alloy horse complete with functioning pin, wasmade was made between ad200 and 410. Found on a detecting rally last summer near Leasingham, h Lincolnshire, lh it is the h only l one of f its kd kind with h a good ukprovenance.

Horses in Roman brooch art are not unusual, but cast threedimensional animals are rare. The pas says it is recording a “gradually increasing repertoire of three-dimensional Roman zoomorphic brooches”. Animals include a unique hare from

Navenby, Lincolnshire, a flying bird fromChildrey from Childrey (above) and a cockerel from Letcombe Bassett (below, both in

Oxfordshire), sea-creatures and a hippocamph, a horsewith horse with a fish tail. Comparable brooches to the Leasinghamhorse Leasingham horse have been listed on auction sites, indicating that inRoman in Roman times it was not unique, but they have no provenance or record. A new class of Leasingham type brooches has been proposed.