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Summary - not yet available

Monument Types

• OCCUPATION SITE (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2501 BC)
• PIT (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2501 BC)

Associated Finds

• LITHIC IMPLEMENT (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2501 BC)
• SHERD (Late Neolithic - 3000 BC to 2501 BC)

Full description

Excavations during the development of Blackhorse Road in 1958-67 revealed Neolithic occupation.
A group of six large pits and a post-hole were found at the south west of the site at c.TL 2323 3365. The skeleton of a small dog was found at the base of each pit. At the eastern end of the site at c.TL 2344 3388, a post hole produced a flint backed knife, a shallow pit contained an antler pick and a ditch contained bones of a bear. The larger pits may have been dug for flint, but the nature of the artefacts recovered from them and their rapid filling suggest a ritual context. One of the beakers recovered was associated with charcoal which produced a radiocarbon date of c.1500bc, and one of the large pits contained Ebbsfleet pottery which produced a date of c.1800bc (both are uncalibrated dates). The calibrated dates and the range of pottery place the site in the later third millennium BC <3, 4>.
A range of Neolithic pottery types were found across the site including all three styles of late Neolithic Peterborough ware (Ebbsfleet, Fengate and Mortlake), Grooved Ware pottery, six rusticated beakers and one 'necked' beaker. A number of flint tools were also found.
Further Neolithic material was recovered in 1972 <1>. The excavations also produced evidence of Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman occupation [1858, 188, 1288] and an early medieval cemetery [1618].

CBA Group 10 Newsletter, 1961,p17; The Arch.1960, pp11-16; (Bibliographic reference). SHT2355.

John Moss-Eccardt, Letters, 3.12.1959; 8.6.1960 (Unpublished document). SHT6558.

OS Records (Index). SHT8223.

Anon, 1962, (Recent discoveries in Herts); CBA Regional Group 10 Bulletin (1962), 11-18, - p11 (Article in serial). SHT2372.

Moss-Eccardt, John, 1967, The prehistoric and Roman site at Blackhorse Road, Letchworth; N Herts Antiquary vol. 4, p5-7, 10 (Article in serial). SHT8455.

Moss-Eccardt, John, 1968, The prehistoric, Roman and Saxon site at Blackhorse Road, Letchworth; North Herts Antiquary 5, p7-10 (Article in serial). SHT3920.

Wainwright, G J, & Longworth, I H, 1971, Durrington Walls: excavations 1966-1968, - p277 (Monograph). SHT5270.

Moss-Eccardt, J, 1988, Archaeological investigations in the Letchworth area, 1958-74; Procs Cambs Antiquarian Soc 77, 35-103 (Article in serial). SHT5445.

<1> Moss-Eccardt, John, 1972, Blackhorse Road, Letchworth; HMSO Excavations 1972 (Article in serial). SHT8936.

<2> Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith J, & Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Tony, 2009, The archaeology of Letchworth Garden City, Summary and photos, 16-17 (Bibliographic reference). SHT1698.

<3> Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith, 2009, The archaeology of Norton <www.nortoncommarch.com> (Digital archive). SHT6100.

<4> Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Keith, 2015, The Baldock bowl: an exceptional prehistoric landscape on the edge of the Chilterns; IN Kris Lockyear, ed., Archaeology in Hertfordshire: recent research, 68-88 (Article in monograph). SHT9755.

Sources and further reading

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