Trust watching brief at Mersea Mount

Today (30th July), the Trust conducted a watching brief at Mersea Mount or Mound (also ‘West Mersea barrow’ or ‘Grim’s Hoe’) on the excavation of a cable trench for the installation of a power cable. This is being installed to provide electric illumination inside the Mount, which can be accessed via a modern entrance. Trust archaeologist Don Shimmin undertook the watching brief. The Mount is in the parish of West Mersea on Mersea Island: it is a significant local ancient monument and it is designated as being of national importance. It is a Roman round barrow – a high-status burial – at Barrow Hill Farm. It was partly excavated in 1912 by the Morant Club and it is Essex SMR no 1! It is so archaeologically important that an archaeological condition is placed on all works near the monument; in this case, a watching brief at the Mount itself.

‘… [the Mount] stands at an elevation of 60 ft. above sea-level, and, though now much worn, is about 110 ft. in diameter and 22½ ft. high, and the top is flat over a space of 16 ft. Excavations carried out by the Morant Club in 1912 showed that in the centre a chamber 18 in. square by 21½ in. in height was sunk so that the floor was 15 in. below the original surface. The floor consisted of two roof tiles, laid on two courses of septaria; the walls were made of seven courses, of flanged roof-tiles and the roof was composed of a single bonding tile, 21½ in. square. Over the chamber was a dome of seven courses of tile set in mortar. On the original surface soil beneath the barrow was a thin red stratum, 2 in. or less in thickness, made of crushed tile and yellow ochre. Above this for 12 ft. was a core of grey earthy quartz sand, very compact, with repetitions of the red stratum for the first 18 in., and the rest of the barrow consisted of looser sand and gravel. Mixed with these were a few fragments of Samian, Belgic and Upchurch pottery, a few flints, and a little briquetage.
In the chamber was a leaden casket, 12½ in. square and 13 in. deep, covered with two pieces of board and containing a glass bowl, 11½ in. high, and nearly 13 in. in diameter, with a small mouth and a broad, flat rim. The glass was pale green and transparent. The vessel contained the cremated remains of an adult. It would seem to date from the latter half of the first century …’ – by British History Online at www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=122946

According to the Essex Heritage Environment Record (EHER), there was no evidence of a surrounding ditch when the Mount was excavated. The EHER concludes that the burial is possibly Flavian (AD 60-90), with the glass bowl and lead casket both being dated to AD 43-100.

From the English Heritage listing of the Mount: ‘… Roman barrows are rare nationally, with less than 150 recorded examples, and are generally restricted to lowland England with the majority in East Anglia. The earliest examples date to the first decades of the Roman occupation and occur mainly within this East Anglian concentration. It has been suggested that they are the graves of native British aristocrats who chose to perpetuate aspects of Iron Age burial practice. The majority of the barrows were constructed in the early second century AD but, by the end of that century, the fashion for barrow building appears to have ended… Many barrows were subjected to cursory investigation by antiquarians in the 19th century and, as little investigation to modern standards has taken place, they remain generally poorly understood.
The survival of Roman barrows as upstanding earthworks is rare nationally and extremely rare in East Anglia.
The use of a barrow at West Mersea to demarcate a cremation burial is not unique in Roman Britian; however, Mersea Mount is unusual in that Roman barrow burials are usually found in groups (such as the Bartlow mounds at Ashdon). This lone, large barrow is indicative of a very high-status burial; the individual cremated and interred at West Mersea must have had some particular position of significance amongst the community to warrant the erection of the edifice.
Although partly excavated, the structure of the barrow remains substantially intact. Artefacts and environmental evidence will have survived and may, through the use of modern scientific analysis, add to our knowledge of the
construction and appearance of the barrow and of Roman Mersea at the time of the mound’s construction …’

In early 2013, the BBC and the East Anglian Daily Times reported that the human remains recovered in 1912 were being sent for analysis. The results were reported on in June 2013 by the EADT. The results showed that the remains were those of an adult male, aged between 35 and 45, who had been active but also suffered from a rare bone disorder, ie ‘DISH’ (diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis). Apparently this is the earliest-known evidence of the disease in Britain. It is thought that the man would have lived in a villa or farmstead on the island, as the burial was of such a high status. The analysis of the remains also showed evidence of frankincense from East Africa, another indication of high status and wealth.

The bowl and the casket are held by Colchester Castle Museum.

Read the story of the excavation of the Mount at www.merseamuseum.org.uk/mmresdetails.php?tot=55&col=MM&pid=COR2_024&typ=all&rt=Article&syn=all&ord=dtadd&wds=&hit=50 and read the English Heritage listing of Mersea Mount in full at http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle_print.aspx?uid=1019019&showMap=1&showText=1

The images show the cable trench and the entrance to the Mount, and the Mount from the road, today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.