NHER 68140 (Monument record) - Possible prehistoric soil remnant and late post-medieval features

May-July 2014. Strip, Map and Sample Excavation.
Excavation on route of Wissington Pipeline Diversion (Field 10).
The stripping of this section of the pipeline easement revealed little in the way of archaeologically-significant remains.
Of greatest interest was a localised mid to dark grey silty clay deposit exposed beneath the subsoil at the western end of the site. This contained a number of finds, including a single Middle Neolithic Peterborough Ware pottery sherd, worked flints (only broadly datable as later prehistoric) and fragments of animal bone. It is suggested this might represent the remnants of a prehistoric soil. This potentially prehistoric deposit was cut by a roughly east-to-west aligned ditch that corresponds with a former field boundary depicted on the Methwold tithe map of 1839 (S1). A line of discrete, pit-like features running parallel to this ditch were probably of a similar age. These were most likely planting pits as both the tithe map and the Ordnance Survey First Edition Six-inch map (S2) show this field boundary as associated with a belt of trees. A potentially Mesolithic flint bladelet and a later prehistoric worked flint recovered from these pits were therefore almost certainly residual.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 29 February 2024.