Chapter 2 Time and Place : chronology and landscape by

2004

Geophysical survey in 2006, part of the Silbury Hill Conservation Project, revealed extensive settlement in two fields south of Silbury Hill. The Later Silbury project consisted of an archaeological evaluation in 2010 and reassessment of surviving material from earlier excavations in the immediate area. The project aimed to characterise the Romano-British settlement, and to elucidate this poorly understood phase of activity around the monument and within the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site, contributing to future management and presentation. Roman Silbury was probably a roadside settlement or small town along the London to Bath road (the modern A4). Immediately south of the road, any surviving features were masked in the magnetic survey by pipelines. In the arable field sloping down to the Kennet, the surveys indicated an extensive settlement, including a minor road or trackway running south from the road with three large subdivided rectangular enclosures to its west. Five evaluation trenches were opened here, concentrating on one of the enclosures and avoiding the large stone buildings identified by ground penetrating radar. Three trenches were opened in the water meadow to investigate geophysical anomalies and alluvial deposits near the river. This report assesses the results of the 2010 evaluation.

Chalk Hill: Neolithic and Bronze Age discoveries at Ramsgate, Kent, 2019

Chalk Hill lies on the southern coast of what is now the Isle of Thanet in eastern Kent at the south-eastern tip of Britain, about 2km west of the port of Ramsgate. A programme of survey, evaluation and excavation was commissioned by KCC Heritage Conversation Group in advance of the construction of a new road linking the Canterbury Road (A 253) to Ramsgate Harbour by Kent County Council’s Highways Department revealed a rich palimpsest of features spanning several millennia. The earliest significant features recorded on the site dated to the early Neolithic (roughly 3700–3600 cal BC). The took the form of three concentric arcs of intercutting pit clusters forming discrete ‘segments’, the fills of which produced rich assemblages of pottery, flintwork, animal bone and other material. Much of this material appeared to have been deliberately placed in the pits rather than representing casual disposal of refuse. There are indications that material placed in different pits at different times may have derived from the same source, a ‘midden’ or some such which was not located during the excavations. The pit clusters appeared to have resulted from repeated pit-digging in the same location over an extended period. Although the overall morphology of the site is reminiscent of a ‘causewayed enclosure’ the pit cluster segments do not appear to represent ditches and the gaps between segments seem to be fortuitous, rather than planned ‘causeways’ between ditch segments. The site therefore contributes a more nuanced understanding of the heterogeneity of monumental architecture in the early Neolithic of the British Isles. The site probably went out of use in around 3600 cal BC, and little evidence for middle or later Neolithic activity was recovered. Beaker and early Bronze Age features included four inhumations, two of which associated within a small ring-ditch probably representing a ploughed-out burial mound. A set of two parallel ditches dating to the middle/late Bronze Age running for 90m across the site and between 1.6m and 2.4 apart might represent a track- or drove-way, or alternatively a boundary division flanking a small bank and hedge. The eastern part of a late Bronze Age subrectangular enclosure was also recorded, within which was a cluster of post-holes and small pits that presumably relate to a structure or structures, reminiscent of the cluster of structural features within the Central Enclosure at East Kent Access, just to the west of Chalk Hill. Apart from a few residual sherds of late Iron Age and Roman pottery, there was no further evidence of activity at Chalk Hill until the Anglo-Saxon period when a solitary sunken-featured building was recorded along with a small number of isolated pits and post-holes. Chalk Hill was then given over to agricultural use during the medieval period with the establishment of an extensive field system and hollow way running across the site, with perhaps some extractive industry suggested by a large quarry pit immediately to the south-east of the hollow way. The hillside remained in agricultural use until the construction of the new road.

This paper is a non-intrusive desk and field survey of prehistoric cross dykes, prompted by the findings of an excavation (Brewer, 2013), with the survey expanding outwards, following the emerging patterns first suggested by the excavation. Initially, the dykes of an arbitrary area of the central Wessex chalk downs, comprising Wiltshire, Berkshire and Hampshire, are studied, with a more detailed examination of about 54 dykes. The findings prompt a further survey of the North Yorkshire dykes with a detailed examination of ten dykes surrounding the Hole of Horcum. The survey is then expanded again, at a more superficial level, to all the recorded dykes, to determine if the findings and patterns are consistent. The primary purpose is to accumulate evidence; an explanation is attempted, but with acknowledgement that this is always speculative.

Sussex Archaeological Collections 147, 2009

Stannington Interchange, Northumberland: Archaeological Mitigation Recording by Topographic Survey and Photography, 2003

Proceedings of The Geologists Association, 2002

Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 2011

Archaeological Landscapes of East London: six multi-period sites excavated in advance of gravel quarrying in the London Borough of Havering, 2011

Six archaeological sites investigated in advance of gravel extraction in the London Borough of Havering, between 1963 and 1997, form the basis of a landscape history of the locality. Significant monuments include an Early Neolithic ring ditch. The Bronze Age and Iron Age were periods of woodland clearance followed by intensive landscape utilization and settlement. Two fortified enclosures date from the period of the Roman conquest. A number of Roman farmsteads were occupied until the late 4th century; some of these sites were also inhabited during the Early Saxon period. Significant medieval remains included a farmstead and a manorial enclosure. A full digital resource of excavated samples is available for researchers via Archaeology Data Service. Monograph Series 54 MOLA 2011. ISBN 978-1-907586. Hb 144pp. 99 bw & col ills. Reviews "This book will be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand the changing landscape of the region over time, and is a must-have for those involved in fieldwork in east London and Essex, especially for the book’s extensive bibliography." Alistair Ainsworth in London Archaeologists 2013 "…it does summarise the fieldwork nicely, placing what can be relatively sparse evidence into a well rounded narrative and should be useful to anyone interested in the archaeology of the Thames area." John Naylor in Journal of the Medieval Settlement Research Group 2012 "This important publication is the result of a project funded by the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund. It rescues a large amount of archaeological information from obscurity but also places it in context to give a well-researched and well-presented story." David Bird in Transactions of London and Middlesex Archaeology Society 2011 "Local history is, in effect, at its most expansive an inter-disciplinary approach to every aspect of the historic local landscape. Archaeological reports, such as this from Museum of London Archaeology, readily inform such an inter-disciplinary approach. The science which archaeologists apply is now giving immeasurable insights into the lives of people who lived where we live but who, unlike us, have left no written records. We now know something of their lifestyle and even their diets, and this gives us greater insight into the degree to which people had already made their mark on the landscape, well before the Roman occupation. Such reports as this should become part of the reference repertoire of local historians." Trevor James in Local History Magazine 2011