Find Spot record 1579500000 - W of London Road

Evaluation trial trenching carried out in September and October 2023 by Oxford Archaeology frecovered an assemblage of late Neolithic to early Bronze Age worked flints, mostly as residual finds within later features. A total of 163 flints consisting of 49 main pieces, 114 fine shatter recovered from environmental bulk samples and 71 burnt unworked flint weighing 106g. The vast majority of the main pieces are undiagnostic flake blanks (40) with the remainder made up of three bladelets, three irregular waste, a core tested nodule and two flakes from ground flint implements. The three bladelets found appear accidental in nature and are not likely to be part of a typical blade industry. The technology used was mostly hard hammer on plain or cortical/thermal platforms with no platform preparation. While truly diagnostic pieces are few, there is enough technological characteristics to indicate they are likely to be late Neolithic to early Bronze Age in date. The 114 pieces of fine shatter and chips are likely to be mechanically fractured than indicative of in situ working. The assemblage is in good condition, largely displaying no or light edge damage, with few pieces showing more moderate levels of damage. Cortication levels range from light to very heavy, indicating that the assemblage was exposed to the elements before deposition. See report for detail (B1).