WHITTON S.
Glamorgan, Wales.
Whitton is
16 km SW of Cardiff on the plateau W of the river Waycock. In its earliest form it consisted of a pre-Roman
farmstead (ca. 60 x 58 m) enclosed by a bank and
massive ditch. This phase, characterized by circular timber houses and rectilinear granaries raised on a grid of posts, need not be earlier than the beginning of the 1st c. A.D.
In the Flavian period we find sub-rectangular houses.
From the second quarter of the 2d c. on stone buildings
were normal: a succession of them continued the occupation down to ca. A.D. 350, when the site was abandoned. Whitton never conformed to any of the standard villa plans, and its accommodation was not luxurious.
Tessellated pavements were unknown, and the two hypocausts which were built were never used. At all periods the pre-Roman ditch marked the limit of the farmstead although it had ceased to be an effective defense because of gradual silting and deliberate filling. Outside it the only finds were a rock-cut corn-drying kiln and a well-paved track leading E from the only entrance to the
site.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M. G. Jarrett,
The Iron Age and Roman Farm at Whitton, Glamorgan, forthcoming
MPI.
M. G. JARRETT
