The Westward House Project: The Aims and Objectives

The Westward House Project: The Aims and Objectives

         I have always been interested in the Iron Age/Roman transitional period in my local area of Chichester and Fishbourne, so for my Master’s degree dissertation I wanted to look at something zooarchaeological in the area. Fortunately I was presented with the opportunity to do this by Fishbourne Roman Palace, who introduced me to the site of Westward House.

         The site of Westward House is located nearby to Fishbourne Roman Palace, however the activity there pre-dates the palace itself.  The dating of the site currently relies on pottery evidence, with early imported Roman Pottery and Late Iron Age coarse pottery dating features to around AD 30. Usually this site would be interpreted as being occupied by Iron Age inhabitants, due to it predating the Roman Invasion of AD 43, however a military building found directly underneath Fishbourne Roman Palace has led to some authors to suggest that the Roman Military had settled in the area before the invasion. 

Figure 1: Site plan of Westward House (In Box) showing the nearby military granaries underneath Fishbourne Roman Palace. Allen 2011

The Roman Military remains underneath Fishbourne Roman Palace consist of timber framed buildings and ditches, interpreted by Cunliffe (1998) as granaries used by the military. The dating of the military phase at Fishbourne is poor, even though the site has the potential to pre-date the Roman Invasion. Due to the close proximity of Westward house to the military building underneath Fishbourne, it has been suggested that the two sites might be part of the same large military complex, which if that is the case, could prove that the Roman military were in Fishbourne before the Roman Invasion.

         To look at who occupied the site I am going to be looking at the animal bones from the site. To do this I plan to look at how the animal bone from the site is butchered. Iron Age and Roman butchery practices vary greatly, so from analysing these remains It should be possible to determine whether it was the Roman military or the local Iron Age population who were present in the area before the Roman Invasion.

         I aim to keep updating my blog with more information about the project as time goes on. I am aiming to complete the project by September, however I hope to write up more detailed information about the project as well. Including information about; 

- The Regini (The tribe who occupied the area)

- The difference in Roman and Iron Age butchery practices 

- Information about the site itself

- Some of the more interesting animal bones I find! (I have already found a Bear toe, which I will hopefully be writing about soon!)

References/Further Reading

Allen, M., 2011. Animalscapes and Empire: New Perspectives on the Iron Age/Romano-British Transition. Ph.D thesis. University of Nottingham.

Cunliffe, B., 1998. Fishbourne Roman Palace. Gloucestershire: Tempus Publishing Ltd.