NHER 56173 (Monument record) - Early Neolithic and Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age pits

January 2011. Trial Trenching.
Evaluation of proposed development site.
A buried soil horizon found across the site contained six worked flints including unretouched flakes, a single retouched flake, a small thumbnail scraper and a small blade-like flake. The majority were of Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age date, although the blade-like flake is probably Mesolithic or Early Neolithic.

In the centre of the site a tree throw was excavated but found to contain no finds but a large pit to the west contained several fragments of Early Neolithic pottery. In the southern area a pit was found to contain Beaker pottery and 16 Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age worked flints, including waste flakes from the later stages of core deduction. A pit or post-hole feature to the south of this feature contained a single struck flake also dating to this period.

A large quantity of unworked burnt flint and a single flake was recovered from a pit located in the eastern area of the site that probably dates from the Early Bronze Age. This feature shares similarities with Bronze Age burnt mounds that have been located within the area at Edgefield Heath and Stody Lodge Plantation. This feature cut through a possible buried soil horizon sealed beneath colluvium and also contained a single piece of Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery which may have derived from the later coluviual deposits.
See report (S1) for further details.
S. Howard (HES), 10 October 2011.