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Further discoveries at St Brieuc-Tregueux Print E-mail

The ditch of an Iron Age enclosure
Archaeologists at St Brieuc in Normandy reached the bottom of the ditch of the defended Iron Age enclosure, which is 5.5 m deep on the east side. Here there were 1 m of waterlogged deposits, in which archaeologists found numerous amphorae and much wood, as well as layers of leaves.

The potential for environmental reconstruction is good. The interior has now been stripped to natural, revealing square enclosures on the west, a probable large posthole building in the centre, a well and gate or bridge postholes on the east. There is also a stone-lined Roman well, giving us two potential phases of environmental material.

The Iron Age settlement has two wells at least 7 m deep, and at this depth waterlogged wood has been recovered. Adjacent to one well is a stone-covered drain or conduit, probably also Iron Age, which ends adjacent to the largest building yet found in the settlement. Although finds are mostly domestic, these now include fragments of at least five glass bracelets.

At the east end of the site, a complex of five probable oval pottery kilns grouped around a ditch have been excavated. The two on the west are about 1.5 m across, two on the east and one on the north within the ditch are less than 1 m, and the latter are lined with stone slabs surmounted with tiles, with a vertical stone slab across the long axis to support the floor. There are quarries close by, and a pit containing overfired jugs that probably came from the kilns was found during the evaluation.