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What they found
Local metal detectorist and amateur archaeologist Paul Bevan had discovered large amounts of Iron-Age and Roman material on his land at Standish. He called in Time Team to see if he had a villa on his property. Time Team developed a strategy to test this theory with county archaeologist Jan Wills.
A magnetometry survey indicated a range of rectilinear and curvilinear negative features within a widespread boundary but no strong evidence for a Roman structure. Strongly defined features picked up by a resistivity survey turned out to be geological.
Trenches placed over two circular features revealed roundhouses of different dates. One, with a clearly visible 'drip gully' around its perimeter, was dated to 150-50 BC. A deliberate deposit of stacked pots, charcoal, and butchered horse remains by the entrance indicated a destruction date of about 50 BC. The other, with a metalled floor surface, was dated to the first century AD.
A trench placed over a pit anomaly revealed a crouch-position burial of a young woman. While there were no grave finds, residual pottery dated the burial to the first century AD. Stone rubble and evidence for iron working was also excavated.
Excavation over rectilinear features revealed freshly broken shards of pottery dating from the second to fourth centuries AD, together with tesserae, roof-tile fragments, evidence of iron working and rubble foundations for two timber structures. These buildings were interpreted as a farmstead facing onto a walled yard.
The conclusion was that there was no villa here, and the Roman period timber structures accounted for all the Roman material found on the site. This was the last discernible phase of the farming activities of a family that may have been in continuous occupation of this land since the mid-late Iron Age.
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