Becoming Roman: excavation of a Late Iron Age to Romano-British landscape at Monkston Park, Milton Keynes

Abstract

• Occupation along the east side of the Ouzel valley included a Late Iron Age field system and a cremation cemetery, with Catuvellauni funerary traditions continuing into the Roman post-conquest period. Later 1st-century AD fields, timber structures and a large enclosure were associated with farming near Roman Watling Street. The enclosure, relocated to the valley floor, was expanded in the late Roman period to include masonry corn driers or malting ovens, with an enlarged enclosure established on the valley ridge. The farm, which produced wheat, livestock and some metalwork, was abandoned in the late 4th century. Medieval ridge and furrow cultivation was identified within fields associated with Milton Keynes village.