See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

Group of seven pits excavated along the route of a gas pipeline. The fills contained burnt material including cereal grains and mixed wood charcoal and the pits, therefore, probably represent the remains of domestic occupation. Radiocarbon dates from three of the pits place the group in the Middle Bronze Age.

Location

Protected Status: none recorded

Other References/Statuses: none recorded

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• PIT (Middle Bronze Age - 1500 BC to 1001 BC) + Sci.Date

Full description

Joyce, S. + Mudd, A. + Collard, M., 2010, South-West Reinforcement Project, Ottery St Mary to Aylesbeare, Aylesbeare to Kenn, Fishacre to Choakford Gas Pipelines, Devon: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design Issue 2: Volume I Text, 49, 208 (Report - non-specific). SDV347992.

Site FTC 12.05. Group of seven pits located in the centre of the site (12.05.004, 009, 011, 013, 017, 019 and 024). The pits measured between 0.3 and 0.6 metres wide and 0.12 to 0.38 metres deep. The fills contained burnt material including cereal grains and mixed wood charcoal. They were initially thought to be cremation pits but the soil samples contained no bone. Their date and purpose remains unresolved.

Joyce, S. + Mudd, A. + Collard, M., 2010, South-West Reinforcement Project, Ottery St Mary to Aylesbeare, Aylesbeare to Kenn, Fishacre to Choakford Gas Pipelines, Devon: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design Issue 2: Volume II Illustrations, Fig. 50 (Report - non-specific). SDV347993.

Map object based on this source.

Joyce, S. + Mudd, A. + Collard, M., 2010, South-West Reinforcement Project, Ottery St Mary to Aylesbeare, Aylesbeare to Kenn, Fishacre to Choakford Gas Pipelines, Devon: Post-Excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design Issue 2: Volume III Site Gazetteer, FTC 12.05 (Report - non-specific). SDV347994.

Mudd, A. + Joyce, S., 2014, The Archaeology of the South-West Reinforcement Gas Pipeline, Devon. Investigations in 2005-2007, 35-37, 73, 74 (Monograph). SDV359340.

Site 21. Hood Ball, Rattery. Seven pits were identified with charcoal rich fills. Soil samples from five of the pits contained burnt material including a small quantity of cereal grains including barley, rye and emmer/spelt, a piece of cherry stone, a hazelnut shell fragment and charcoal. The lack of cremated bone and the palaeobotanical evidence for food suggests that these features represent the remains of domestic occupation. Radiocarbon dates from three of the pits place the group in the Middle Bronze Age. Rye is a rare occurrence in Bronze Age deposits and the single grain recovered from pit 12.05.011 may have been a wild contaminent. It produced a radio carbon date of 1316-1127 cal. BC. Map object based on this source.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds

• FDV6130 - CEREAL GRAIN (Middle Bronze Age - 1500 BC to 1001 BC)

Associated Events

• EDV5439 - Archaeological Investigations Along Gas Pipeline, South-West Reinforcement Project

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.