Yesterday (3rd April), we finished our excavation on the former car-park site in Mess Road in the old Shoebury garrison at Shoeburyness in south Essex, on the bank of the River Thames. The excavation began on the 12th March. The site is to be redeveloped with houses.
The site lies in the southern part of the Scheduled Ancient Monument site known as the ‘Danish Camp’ but which is actually the remains of a Middle Iron Age hillfort. Parts of the ramparts survive. Previous recent excavations have found evidence of Middle Iron Age round-houses and other structures, and Roman occupation. However, no evidence for a 9th-century Danish camp has been found here.
We produced an assessment of the archaeological potential of the site in 2012 and then undertook an evaluation on the site (CAT Report 680), which was then followed by the excavation. During the evaluation, ten potential archaeological features were investigated, including four ditches (one of which was a re-cut of an earlier ditch) and four small pits/post-holes. Based on the pottery evidence, these features were thought to represent activity on the site in the Early Iron Age and extending into the Middle Iron Age.
Our excavation on the site has been very productive. We have found much evidence of prehistoric occupation in the form of features and broken pottery, including large sherds. The pottery must now be studied in detail, but the evidence from the site seems to date from the Middle Iron Age with some possibly dating from the Late Bronze Age.
Great work by the team of Trust archaeologists Ben, Chris and Mark, supervised by Adam, in bitter cold conditions…
The images show different parts of the site. The top image includes part of a circular ditch which defined one of the round-houses and the other shows Adam excavating an Iron Age ditch.
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