Akeman Street Roman Road and Romano-British Settlement at Landbeach, Car Dyke Farm

Investigations at the Roman road of Akeman Street and the remnants of a Romano-British farmstead, enclosure ditches and droveways confirm the presence of features previously identified from aerial photography. The Roman road had undergone extensive erosion due to modern farming practices, with little of the agger surviving today although the roadside ditches were still evident. Archaeological deposits revealed the presence of an earlier trackway the ditches of which had been backfilled and left for a period during which a soil developed above them before the construction of Akeman street occurred. A ring-ditch, representing a possible timber building, was enclosed by ditches which contained excellent ecofacts surviving in waterlogged fills and metalled trackways were found to run between parallel enclosure. Pottery dated the trackway and settlement to the 2nd-4th centuries AD, and therefore also indicates a date for construction of Akeman Street.