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The Excavation of Caesar's Camp, Heathrow, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, 1944

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Joanna Close-Brooks
Affiliation:
Milford Corner Cottage, Cliff Road, Milford-on-Sea, Lymington, Hampshire SO41 0NW

Abstract

W. F. Grimes excavated a rectangular earthwork in advance of airport construction in 1944, at Heathrow, Middlesex, and found a timber building of unique ‘concentric-rectangle’ plan, together with penannular house gullies; all these features were thought to be part of the same settlement except for two Neolithic pits. Now it can be seen that a Late Bronze Age occupation attested by scattered pottery and small finds but next to no identifiable structures, was followed by 11 Middle Iron Age round houses, and one or two features that may be Late Iron Age. The rampart of the earthwork overlay at least some of the houses. The rectangular building may be Middle or Late Iron Age: though other Iron Age rectangular buildings are now known, its concentric plan remains unique in Britain and resembles that of some Romano–Celtic temples. The precise chronological relationship of the strong earthwork, the round houses and the rectangular building remains uncertain.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1993

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References

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