Recently discovered Neolithic causewayed enclosure, a rarity in Herefordshire (at present). Description from Pastscape:
Geophysical Survey and Excavation were carried out at a cropmarked enclosure site at Hill Croft Field, Bodenham as part of the Herefordshire Rivers Lugg Valley Project. The geophysical survey recorded and located the ditch and entrance, but no further archaeological features were identified. Three 10m x 5m trenches were opened in order to examine different areas of the site. The archaeological deposits in Trench 1 confirmed the interpretation of the enclosure as a site of the causewayed camp tradition.
The site of an Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure at Hill Croft Field, 400 metres East of Ashgrove Farm, Bodenham. Aerial photographs of the area revealed a cropmark of a curvilinear interrupted ditch forming an irregular ovoid enclosure, measuring approximately 175 metres by 168 metres. This was originally believed to represent an Iron Age hilltop enclosure. Geophysical survey and excavation were carried out in 2006 as part of the Herefordshire Rivers Lugg Valley Project. This recorded and located the ditch and entrance, but no further archaeological features were identified.
Three trenches were excavated, one of which exposed the entrance identified on the aerial photo, and the western ditch terminal. The ditch ranged in width from 2.9 to 3.1 metres. The finds from the excavation, including animal bone, flint, pottery, charcoal and mollusc shells, all dated to the Early Neolithic period. This is the first causewayed enclosure to be identified in Herefordshire and also in the wider West Midlands.
The site was included in research into the dating of Early Neolithic enclosures, and radiocarbon dates estimate the date of construction to be in 3640-3500 cal BC. The ditch at Hill Croft Field may have largely infilled by the later fourth millennium cal BC. The mid-fourth millennium cal BC date of the monument confirms that in this region, as in others, enclosures of the period included forms other than the readily recognised causewayed plans of, for example, Dorstone Hill or Womaston.
|
Posted by thesweetcheat
2nd December 2011ce
Edited 2nd December 2011ce
|
|
Log in |
Register
Top of page