Surrey Archaeological Society

Ruth Shaffrey is a worked stone specialist currently working at Oxford Archaeology. She has reported on querns from several Surrrey sites and recently had a paper published in Surrey Archaeological Collections, 110, 71-142  Roman Ewell: a review of the querns and millstones and implications for our understanding of the organisation of grain processing.

Site director, Emma Corke, will update us on recent fieldwork at Cocks Farm Abinger. Work in the field adjacent to the scheduled Roman villa, targeted using the results of magnetometry, has revealed a concentration of Iron Age grain storage pits, enclosure ditches and related activity, Romano-British field boundaries and agricultural ditches, and evidence for Bronze Age activity on the site (up to 2017 season). 

David Graham, RSG vice-chairman, will be talking to us on archaeology in the East Hampshire border area, centred around the Romano-British small town of Neatham. He will draw together evidence for RB activity such as villas, a bath house, cemeteries and a pottery industry.

Bourne Hall Museum has organised a programme of Summer Walks. There are some new walks along South Street and at the Racecourse. Some will cover the development of Epsom Spa and the area during WWI.

Walks cost £5 per person and limited to 25 participants. Booking essential and contact: David Brooks, Bourne Hall Museum or via:dbrooks@epsom-ewell.gov.uk

A pdf with full details is attached.

Garum was a favourite condimentof the Romans. It was made made from the fermented blood and innards of selected fish and was produced across the empire to meet the wide demand. Luckily, ancient sources describe the different types of garum and how it was made. The written sources are complemented by evidence from Pompeii, and it appears to have been a very lucrative trade. Salt was also a significant contributor to the Roman economy, and was vital to the preservation of foodstuffs including meat, dairy and fish.

Martyn Allen is well known to many in the Roman Studies Group, having talked to us previously, and as a freelance osteoarchaeologist he has provided expert bone  reports for some of our excavations. He is  currently a Post-Excavation Project Manager working for Oxford Archaeology Ltd. His  research focuses on the settlement and agricultural economy of late Iron Age and Roman Britain, with an emphasis on the zooarchaeological evidence.

Sadie Watson is an experienced archaeologist who has extensive experience excavating and supervising complex urban sites. She was responsible for leading the excavations at Bloomberg London 2010-14, and has agreed to talk to us on this work, including the writing tablets found, and to give us an update on the post-excavation work.