2006 season
The 2006 season was an ambitious one. We aimed to excavate the interior of the enclosure to find evidence of occupation. The 2005 season had established that there was Mesolithic activity in the area through the radio carbon dating of charcoal samples taken from the enclosure's banks, so now was the time to open up the interior itself. An area of twelve metres by twelve metres was mapped out and a JCB painstakingly took us down to a depth of 8 inches. From then on it was trowel work with occasional use of the mattocks to break up the numerous flints.
Almost immediately two, possibly three, pots were unearthed. Although broken, most of the pieces were there and it seems likely that they were placed in the ground intentionally. With that in mind, a possible explanation would be that these were either cremation urns or pots placed there in association with some form of ritual. From then on the work was hard going. Assorted pottery sherds were found, some black burnished ware, others what looked like Silchester ware. The assemblage didn't really amount to much other than it showed activitiy of some sort on site.
There were, however, numerous areas of burning. These were small and certainly not hearths of any description. Their function is puzzling. Charcoal samples from these areas will hopefully be radio carbon dated to see if there is any relationship between them and the samples taken from the bank.
The excavation took nine days and we are very grateful to all the volunteers who came to help. We had local residents, local teachers, trained archaeologists and a researcher from the Imperial War Museum to name but a few. Without their assistance we would be in no position to proceed with this fantastic project.
The 2007 season may see us investigate one of the several small mounds in the vicinity of the enclosure and perhaps tackle the puzzle of the pathway cutting through the bank in one place, as revealed by the geophysics.
There's still much to do.
Felix Beardmore-Gray
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