Once everyone had reached the site, a short briefing was taken by Miles Russell and Paul Cheetham. Miles hopes that many of the shallow features will be resolved by the end of the day to help with ascertaining the chronology of the site. A significant quantity of Lower Bronze Age (c. 1400 – 1000) material including bone fragments and pottery sherds. These finds represent a culture earlier in time than envisaged by the Site Directors. However, many of the larger pits in both trenches appear to be Middle Iron Age (c.400). The excavation is now focusing on excavating the large central round houses in both trenches. Of particular interest, is the partitioning of internal space and whether the function and social use of space can be reconstructed. If this endeavour is successful, it may inform a glimpse of Iron Age life from a Durotrigian perspective.
The excavated pits of Trench A and B show signs of greater weathering when compared with the excavated pits from previous seasons; so much so that they become beehive shaped. This is indicative that they were left open for a considerable amount of time prior to back filling. The finds have been mostly evenly distributed throughout the contexts, however there aren’t any ‘ritual’ depositions in the lowermost contexts that have been seen previously. In earlier seasons, particularly those which investigated the banjo enclosure, have little weathering and finds distributed in the upper and middle contexts, save for the ritual deposition in the lowermost. this is suggestive of a rapid back filling of the pit.
Paul updated the students on the progress in finds processing and environmental sampling; both of which have now cleared the backlogs from the previous seasons. He also mentioned that geophysics, lead by BA Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology student Rebecca Bowran and BSc Archaeology student Adam Praoline have discovered a continuation of a ditch that runs in-between the two trenches and a series of pits. It is hoped that this is a continuation of the settlement that has been uncovered in the two trenches of this season. As the weeks progress and the breadth the of survey will increase, it will be assist contextualising the two trenches within the landscape and any possible relation to other archaeological sites.