Iron Age Settlement and a Romano-British Cemetery at the Cotswold School, Bourton-on-the-Water: Excavations in 2011

Excavation on the north-west edge of Bourton-on-the-Water in 2011 found further evidence of the unenclosed Early to Middle Iron Age settlement known from previous work in the vicinity. Three post-built roundhouses and some other structures were found. Radiocarbon and pottery evidence points to abandonment of the settlement by the start of the 2nd century BC. The excavation area lay with the agricultural hinterland of the Romano-British roadside settlement at Bourton, and part of a ditched enclosure was revealed. At least some of the enclosure was given over to human burial in the late Roman period. Within the excavation area 21 extended inhumations were found, six of them placed within stone cists. The human bone assemblage shows a relatively high level of trauma in the burial population, most likely indicative of their harsh physical lifestyle, and the death through weapon trauma of a 26–35 year-old male is a noteworthy and unusual discovery in a rural population from Roman Britain.