NHER 36320 (Monument record) - Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic flint working site, Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age burnt mound and pits, and medieval features

2000. Desk-based Assessment.
Assessment of proposed development area.
A patch of medieval ridge and furrow cultivation and an undated iron ore scatter are known to lie within the proposed development area. The study area contains several sites of considerable archaeological importance, with the Neolithic, Roman and medieval periods particularly well represented.
See report (S1) for further details.
J. Allen (NLA), 4 July 2007.

September-October 2001. Systematic Fieldwalking and Metal-detecting Survey.
Prehistoric burnt flints and 29 worked flints. The latter includes 5 pieces which may date to the Palaeolithic, including a fragment of what could be an Upper Palaeolithic end scraper. Also Neolithic flakes, a blade fragment and a blade manufactured from a reworked polished axe; Early Bronze Age thumbnail scraper and possibly a retouched flake. Remainder of assemblage Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age including includes scrapers.
Other finds were included 8 sherds of post-medieval pottery and a small number of post-medieval metal objects (coins, musket balls and horse brass).
See report for further details (S2). The results of this work are also summarised in (S3).
J. Allen (NLA), 4 July 2007.

April 2002. Trial Trenching and Test Pitting. Contexts 1-44.
Evaluation of proposed development area.

Field B (eastern field):
A total of 19 trenches were excavated in this field.
This work produced a small assemblage of 97 worked flints. These pieces could be divided into two groups; Mesolithic/Early Neolithic material that was predominantly recovered in the western part of the field (on the fen/fen edge) and Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age material that was found primarily on the hill to the east (where it was mixed with earlier material). The earlier assemblage had a high proportion of blades and also included blade/narrow flake cores, flakes with prepared platforms and core preparation/maintenance flakes. Tools were limited to two possible burins and a possible leaf arrowhead roughout. A concentration in the north-western corner of the field, including three of the four cores, possibly indicates a small working area. The later material was characterised by thicker, unprepared flakes and a lack of cores. This assemblage had a much higher proportion of tools, including scrapers (two of which are Early Bronze Age thumbnail scrapers), a knife and retouched flakes.
A burnt mound was also identified, tentatively dated to the Early Bronze Age by worked flint within the mound material. Fourteen sherds of Bronze Age pottery were also recovered.
A late medieval ditch, possibly a boundary ditch, and two modern ditches was also found.

Field A (western field).
Four test pits were excavated in the western field, where ground water levels and the depth of deposit had made further trenching impractical. These showed that the peat had formed within the braided palaeochannel of the Great Ouse river basin, these cut through the softer natural post-glacial deposits and sands. In places there appeared to be considerably deeper channels with thicker peat - these seem to have been followed by later channels that produced a series of roddens. No archaeologically significant features or deposits were exposed.

See report (S4) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S5).
J. Allen (NLA), 4 July 2007. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 28 November 2013.

July to August 2004. Excavation and Test Pit Survey. Contexts 100-208.
Work was undertaken in both of the fields investigated during the early evaluation phases (note that their designations were reversed at this stage).

Field A (eastern field):
This excavation took place in the eastern field, with a limited area subject to intensive archaeological investigation. Two parts of this area were subject to full excavation:

Excavation Area 1.
Area 1 was situated on the lower lying land and was positioned to target the probable burnt mound identified during the earlier evaluation. This area produced considerable evidence for prehistoric activity with a buried soil yielding 897 worked flints. The diagnostic pieces recovered from this deposit were dated to the Late Mesolithic, Early Neolithic and Neolithic. The earliest material appear to represent Mesolithic and Early Neolithic core reduction strategies, with much debris and a number of cores present, but few tools. The one piece of particular note was a Late Mesolithic microtranchet arrowhead.
A small number of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age pieces were also present. A pollen sample from this deposit was indicative of a grassland/pasture environment with the presence of bracken and ferns suggesting degraded soil and wasteland nearby. The area subsequently became waterlogged, with peat forming, probably in the Late Bronze Age. The buried soil was thought to be contemporary with a number of tree throw and silt hollows that were identified.
The burnt mound was examined in detail and found to be associated with a trough. Water would have been provided by a nearby channel and was probably stored in the trough, which had probably originally been plank-lined. The burnt mound was tentatively dated to the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, with the majority of the worked flints associated with these features likely to be residual material. A nearby pit with a heat-scorched clay lining and a cluster of pits on higher ground to the east were thought to be of a similar date. Two of the latter pits contained considerable quantities of Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age flint and Beaker pottery. These pits also contained burnt flints.

Excavation Area 2.
This excavation area targets the ditches that had been identified on the higher ground during the evaluation. Here the cut features were all of medieval date, with prehistoric activity represent by a residual assemblage of Neolithic and Bronze Age worked flints. The medieval features included five intercutting ditches on the same curving north-south alignment, a single ditch on a north-north-east to south-south-west alignment and a pit containing an articulated young cow. Pollen taken from one of the ditches suggests that when it was established its environment included nearby trees and shrubs, whereas evidence for grasslands/pasture and possible local arable cropping was present in samples taken from the main body of the ditch. Two undated post-holes were also identified.

Test pits.
A series of test-pits (laid out on a 20m) was also machine-excavated in this field. This work defined the limits of the clay, peat and buried soil deposits that had previously been identified in this area. The buried soil associated with the prehistoric activity was found to be a north-south strip, bounded by the palaeochannel to the west and thinning out on the rising ground to the east. A total of 36 flints were recovered during this phase of work, the majority, including Mesolithic/Early Neolithic and potentially Neolithic pieces, recovered from the buried soil.

Field B (western field) test pits:
A series of test pits were excavated in this field along a 50m transect. This work identified was undertaken in order to establish the extent of the palaeochannel, and the previously identified buried soil, clay and peat deposits. The position of the palaeochannel was established and an area of buried soil defined. Two burnt flints were the only artefacts recovered from the buried soil.

Final report awaited. See assessment report (S6) for further details. The results of this work are also summarised in (S7).
J. Allen (NLA), 4 July 2007. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 27 November 2013.