NHER 68141 (Monument) - Potentially prehistoric, post-medieval and undated remains

May-July 2014. Strip, Map and Sample Excavation.
Excavation on route of Wissington Pipeline Diversion (Field 11).
The stripping of this section of the pipeline easement revealed several groups of pits and a number of linear features.
It is likely that at least some of the pits and other discrete features recorded in the western half of the site were associated with early activity, although the majority produced little in the way of dating evidence. The more notable exceptions included a pair of adjacent irregular elongated features that both contained small quantities of Early Neolithic pottery and fragments of burnt flint. A number of worked flints (several burnt), pieces of fired clay (two with smoothed surface and wattle impressions) and a single fragment of animal bone was also recovered from these features. Burnt flint was also recovered from a number of the other pits in this half of the site, along with small quantities of worked flint and a flat disc of sandstone that was burnt and sooted on all sides (suggesting it has been utilised in a hearth or oven). Later finds were limited to an iron nail of probable Roman or medieval date.
Prehistoric material was also present in a substantial peat deposit partially exposed at the northern edge of the excavated strip (presumably filling some form of natural hollow). Finds from this deposit included several prehistoric worked flints, a complete bone awl of possible Bronze Age or Iron Age date and a small assemblage of unworked animal bone.
The worked flint assemblage includes a small number of blades and bladelets thought to be of probable Mesolithic date, with the remaining pieces only broadly datable as later prehistoric.
A series of parallel, roughly north-to-south aligned linear features were exposed in the eastern half of the site. The majority were fairly regularly spaced, with broad, concave bases and were most likely furrows associated with post-medieval agricultural. The westernmost of these north-to-south aligned linear features was a more substantial ditch that contained a modern concrete pipe. A number of relatively shallow, flat-based sub-ovoid pits present in this part of the site were probably also of relatively recent date. These are similar to features exposed in fields to the west (see NHERs 68134 and 68137) that were thought to represent evidence for a post-medieval agricultural practise known as claying, where pits were cut into the surface of the underlying natural deposits in order to mix this clayey material with the peaty plough soil above. This helped to prevent the drying out of the plough soil, thereby limiting the loss of material to wind erosion. Three presumably residual medieval roof tile fragments were recovered from one of these pits.
Information from report uploaded to OASIS. HER copy awaited.
P. Watkins (HES), 29 February 2024.