Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ndmmz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-10T14:41:50.120Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Early Bronze Age Pit Circle from Charnham Lane, Hungerford, Berkshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Steve Ford
Steve Ford
Affiliation:
Thames Valley Archaeological Services, 77 Watlington Street, Reading, Berks RG1 4RQ
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

During the course of archaeological investigations in advance of a business and residential development, an unusual structure was discovered. The site is located on a silty clay-capped terrace of the River Kennet immediately to the north-west of Hungerford, Berks, (SU 334692).

The structure, initially thought to be a round house, comprised a ring of seven equally spaced pits in a 6 m diameter circle. At its centre was an area of fire-reddened clay over 1 m in extent. Two shallow scoops cut this burnt area (fig. 1). The pits were generally bowl shaped, 60–80 cm across and 15–30 cm deep. Some of the pits had clear evidence for the presence of small posts. These posts had been burnt and replaced on more than one occasion. There was no evidence for an encircling ditch or a covering mound. A single 14C date of 3360 ± 40 BP (BM–2737) was obtained on oak charcoal from pit 5008, which is consistent with the Early Bronze Age date of the pottery.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , 1991 , pp. 179 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ashbee, P. 1957. Stake and post circles in British round barrows. Archaeological Journal 114, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burl, A. 1976. The Stone Circles of the British Isles. London: Yale.Google Scholar
Christie, P. M. 1967. A barrow cemetery of the second millennium BC in Wiltshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 33, 336–66.Google Scholar
Gerloff, S. 1975. The Early Bronze Age daggers in Great Britain. Prähistorische Bronzefunde 6, 2.Google Scholar
Green, C. & Rollo-Smith, S. 1984. The excavation of eighteen round barrows near Shrewton, Wiltshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 50, 255–318.Google Scholar
Longworth, I. H. 1984. Collared Urns of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Piggott, S. 1938. The Early Bronze Age in Wessex. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 4, 52–106.Google Scholar
Stone, J. F. S. 1938. An Early Bronze Age grave in Fargo plantation near Stonehenge. Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 48, 357–70.Google Scholar