– Dan Broadbent, Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme
This year’s QLPS community archaeology excavation revealed a multi-period site, including a prehistoric enclosure and an Early Medieval cemetery in the heart of the Quantocks.
Previous QLPS excavations have identified a late Bronze Age enclosure; attempted to locate a lost Medieval manor house; and investigated a huge possible neolithic henge. This year, led by professional archaeologists from Dig Ventures, volunteers on the dig were investigating a series of cropmark features within a single field at Cothelstone. Cropmarks are formed when buried archaeological features such as ditches or walls impact on the growth of any crops growing on the surface. Often, these features are indiscernible on the ground but can be identified from aerial photographs or satellite imagery.
The Cothelstone excavation has helped to interpret these features, which include a substantial circular ditch almost 40 metres in diameter. This may once have been the outer ditch of a Bronze Age barrow or burial mound, or it may have an even earlier origin as a henge, a prehistoric ceremonial enclosure, dating from around 3000 BC to 2000 BC. Post-excavation analysis of finds from the ditch, including pottery shards and flint tools will hopefully help to narrow down the date of the monument’s construction. The presence of pottery dating from the second to fourth centuries AD, however, indicates that this site was still in use in some form during the Roman period.
The most surprising discoveries on the site were a series of burials of likely Early Medieval date. Over ten graves were identified in the excavated area, all of which had been carefully aligned on an East-West axis, strongly indicative of Christian burials. Some of these are located within the earlier circular feature, whilst others lay outside. Careful excavation of these features found no trace of human remains due to the very acidic soil conditions in the area, which are detrimental to the preservation of bone. Given their apparently Christian nature, the graves could date from the late Roman period. However, the discovery of three Early Medieval knife blade within one of the graves, suggests a date of around the sixth or seventh century AD is more likely.
This was the final excavation run as part of the QLPS and proved to be one of the most exciting. The cropmarks had indicated there was great potential for some interesting archaeology but the discoveries exceeded all expectations. The re-use of the site is particularly interesting. This was clearly a very significant place for a variety of peoples in the past, over a period of, perhaps, 3,000 years.
Many of the volunteers on the dig were veterans of previous excavations and other archaeological projects run by the QLPS. With the scheme approaching its conclusion next year, plans are now being put in place to harness their enthusiasm and experience, to create an ongoing community archaeology group which can continue to unearth the secrets of the Quantock landscape for many years to come. If you would like to be involved in any future archaeology projects in the area, contact [email protected]