NHER 66824 (Monument record) - Prehistoric and undated pits

January 2021. Field Survey, Walkover Survey and Test Pitting.
Archaeological mitigation undertaken following deep ploughing to create new habitat for stone curlews (Compartment 1). This work inverted the ground to a depth of between 0.4m and 0.6m, with what had been the uppermost soils buried beneath redeposited geological deposits.
A number of probable pits had been disturbed by this work, the majority of which fell within two loose clusters, one in the north-west corner of the field (Site 3; Context 1) and the other close to its northern edge (Site 1; Context 2). One of the features associated with the latter produced two flint blades of Mesolithic/Early Neolithic date and two undiagnostic flint-tempered prehistoric pottery sherds. Although little other dating evidence was recovered it is thought that most, if not all, of the other pits were probably also prehistoric.
Although an attempt at systematic fieldwalking was attempted the extent of the ground disturbance meant the finds were largely limited to the patches of material likely to represent the fills of disturbed features. The once exception was a concentration of worked flints recovered where the presence of a deeper, soil-filled hollow had created an area that wasn’t obscured by redeposited geological material [1]. Metal-detecting recovered only modern artefacts (none of which were retained).
See report (S1) for further details.
P. Watkins (HES), 13 March 2023.