Untitled - Council for British Archaeology

, been
; Nor
! the
11
tionally favourable weather permutations this
year for cropmarks, a large number of known
sites in this area remained totally invisible
or were more difficult to interpret than from
photographs in earlier years. The same seemr
ingly anomalous incidences of evidence have
noted in other areas of the Midlands under
intensive observation for a number of
years and this further confirms that areas and
sites will continue to produce new evidence
for many years to come. It is not yet possible
to estimate the evidence that has been
recorded in any area as a percentage of the .
potential available from aerial archaeology.
is it possible to estimate the ratio of
maximum potential from aerial archaeology
to the total archaeology of a site or area.
The unusual weather permutations provided
other evidence of significance to archaeology
generally. The distribuLion of 'sites' is
far less directly related to the gravel terraces
than the published evidence suggests.
It is perhaps now necessary to do some re-'
thinking on what constitutes an archaeological
'site' and its relation to the society of its
period. This year produced evidence of field
systems of different kinds many miles from the
river.all'out of phase with the field systems
of today, although some elements in today's
fields go back to the medieval period. Ring
ditches were also recorded on .ridges and higher
ground in geology, away from the'valley'con
-text. . (Additionally some recent field workin
N. Warwickshire suggests that UnrecOrded
prehistoric burial mounds from scraped earth,
that do not produce cropmarks, may-alio be
numerous in other similar contexts). To
what extent have those 'sites' such as ring
ditches, that have attracted the excavation
archaeologist, reflected those activities that
permit an understanding of the society by
which they were constructed? The total man -
hours required to create- a.barrow, or burial
mound, can be less than the cultivation work
for one single field in a single year.
The increasing evidence from aerial archaeolog'y
of land use outside those contexts accepted
at present of "Soils'suitable for the
early settlers", Must raise the question, of.
the extent tc, which the known distribution of
ring ditches along the river valleys, and now
on higher ground and ridges, indicates areas'
of settlement and occupation, or whether these
monuments were built on marginal land. Are.
the field systems, or the burials and monuments,
the 'sites' that should be investigate&
Ref. Aerial Reconnaissances 1974,
Newsletter 5, pp.5-7.
WAWCOTT XXIII - F.R. Froom for St. Bartholomew's
Grammar School Arch. Soc., Newbury.
A major excavation in 1971 showed that the
flint industry of Lhis late Mesolithic site
has a microlith component dominated by scalene
triangles (CBA9 Newsletter 2, 1972).
Situated on the edge of the Kennet flood
plain, occupation was on silt deposited on
clay. Subsequently the site was sealed,by a
series of alluvial deposits. In the closing
stages of the 1971 excavations evidence was
found indicating the existence of a pit extending
into the then unexcavated area. . The
pit has nbw been cleared and the surrounding
area examined, providing further details concerning
the nature of the stratification.
The pit had been dug into sterile silt and
proved to be small'and shallow, approx. 3' diameter
and 15" deep, and regular in outline.
The fill vas distinguishable by texture and
colour and by the presence of charcoal flecks
and worked flints, Although almost certainly.
artificial in origin, there was no indication
of its function. The surrounding area yield
-ed a further sample of the flint 4ndustry and
a few faunal remains, the latter including a
large rib, probably of Bos.
Recently a large pick-like tool from the
1971 excavation has been confirmed as being
of chert, certainly not local and probably of
S.W. provenance.
No further work is contemplated at this site
and it is hoped that a full report will be published
in due course.
A NEOLITHIC and BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENT at
BRIXWORTH, Northants. - D.N. Hall, P.W. Martin
for Higham Ferrers Hundred Arch. Soc.
The detailed field work required to find
pre-historic occupation/working sites in central
Northamptonshire continues (Newsletter 5,
1975). The sites, revealed by concentrations
of worked flints, continue to be restricted
entirely to light soils. The occupation remains
range in period from the late Mesolithic
to mid-B.A, and one wonders how primitive peo-