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Dixon's Bank
In the late 1980s Middlesbrough Borough Council set about designing a large new housing development. This was planned on the outskirts of the town to provide several new neighbourhoods in the Marton and Coulby Newham areas. The building of this provided archaeologists with an excellent opportunity to explore life in the Iron Age and Romano-British periods. The first site to be investigated in this way was Bonnygrove Farm which was excavated in 1993 by a team archaeologists from Tees Archaeology. The excavations here revealed a number of substantial ditches, forming a large enclosure in which a settlement was established. Unfortunately the thin topsoil at the site has meant that ploughing has destroyed all but the most substantial features. Nearly ten years went by before the site at Dixons Bank was excavated by Oxford Archaeology North, with project management by the Brigantia Archaeological Practice, in 2002. The Dixons Bank site was very much better preserved. Fragile remains had been protected beneath a build up of soil, washed down the hill slope which the settlement had occupied. A geophysical survey of the site by West Yorkshire Archaeological Service revealed a complex system of ditches and pits forming a series of enclosures and route ways. The excavation found evidence of timber roundhouses which had been repaired and rebuilt on several occasions. These two excavations have been unusual in that they have given a rare opportunity for a large investigation to take place on an ancient site in the heart of what is today a very urban area. |
MAP REFERENCES NZ 525 142 & NZ 528 145
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