South East Coastal Strategy Pipeline, Site M - Caldicot Works
ST 4787 8730; Tim Carew; Watching Brief; 27th - 29th March 2000; Dwr Cymru / Welsh Water; CALD00
Within an alluvial sequence of deposits, an archaeological surface was identified. In three places the alluvium of this surface was slightly higher than elsewhere, and these high areas were covered with spreads of stone, some of which may have been burnt. Roman pottery was present within the stone spreads, and some chips of fired clay had gypsum deposits that suggest either plaster or briquetage from a saltern. The stone could have been from the oven of a saltern. Bone was also present, and some was also found within the alluvium above and below the archaeological surface, probably from post-depositional processes.
It is unclear whether the Roman surface at this location was behind the sea wall and on
drained land, or in front of it and on saltmarsh. No Roman features, such as drainage
ditches, were found on this stretch of the pipeline, as they were between Magor and Nash,
so it may have been saltmarsh, but the position of the Roman sea wall is not resolved and
would require evidence from a wider area. If it was saltmarsh the material may have been
the ballast from boats, originating elsewhere. It is unlikely that material from the
nearest firm ground, 50m or so away, would have been bought onto the saltmarsh just to be
dumped. These boats may have been beached on the mudflats and either had their ballast
removed, or they were broken up, or just disintegrated. In this interpretation, the raised
level of the stones would have been due to the protection they gave to the surface from
subsequent water erosion. If it was in fact drained land, the material could have been
dumped or an in situ saltern subsequently eroded into spreads of stone by water action.
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