Site briefing
The beginning of the third week of excavation followed heavy rainfall, occurring over the weekend, causing the dampening of soil and therefore differential colouring of the contexts and fills of the different features.
During the site briefing, Miles Russell concluded that a further two round houses could be observed on site, poising the question; were all the existing round houses contemporary with one another or not?
Furthermore, the different stages of the drying of the soil separated different types of fill from one another; clearly displaying richer soil, which may infer deeper pits with more nutrients, from more shallow pits such as post holes. While this enabled an easier selection process regarding which features should be excavated more promptly throughout the day, the softened soil also caused a potential safety hazard and therefore the trenches had to undergo a full risk assessment carried out by the trench supervisors, including sectioning off any unstable ground.
The previous week
The late afternoon of the prior week had seen the discovery of the frontal bone of a human cranium in Trench A. Martin Smith, one of Bournemouth University’s osteoarchaeologists, concluded that due to the relative size of the frontal bone, it must have belonged to a human species, however the positioning of the supraorbital foramen inferred that it belonged to an early human, thereby possibly also originating in the Iron Age. Unfortunately, due to the fragmentary nature of the remains, the analysis was inconclusive as to the specific species.
While this discovery added to the wealth of evidence for the continual human occupation of the site, the other disarticulated human remains appeared in a manner typical of the Bronze Age; the placement of weathered bones within pits was commonly found in Bronze Age sites, surrounding funerary earthworks such as the typical barrows. This, in turn, depicts a possible anthropological division within the funerary treatment of upper and lower class citizens during the Bronze Age. Is it possible that the level of respect received by one’s remains derived from the materialistic wealth while alive?
Such behaviour is not unheard of within contemporary cultures; quite the contrary, therefore such an interpretation draws a distinct parallel between us and our ancestors.
Furthermore, the discoveries of entangled remains of cow and horse, particularly at the bottom of pits, such as those found in Trench B, fitted within a pattern observed within sites originating in the Late Iron Age. One of the pits, containing the metacarpal and phalanges of a horse and the rib of a cow also contained remaining charcoal deposits, possibly providing a date for the site.
Further faunal remains within different states of articulation continued to be discovered throughout the site, including the well-preserved skull of a horse in Trench A.