The pit alignment at Milfield North, discussed in the preceding paper, is one of six alignments revealed in the Milfield Basin within the last decade. All discoveries have so far been confined to the sands and gravels of the former delta surface, and whereas additional examples, as well as their extension onto the heavier loams overlying the sandstone series, remain to be found, so crisp has been the definition by means of intensive aerial survey in this valley, that only a limited enlargement of the present distribution pattern by this means is anticipated. The characteristics of the individual alignments are as follows:1. Ewart 1. NT95343209 to NT96103162An irregular line of closely spaced pits that for most of its observable course follows the crest of a gentle but marked elevation in the sand and gravel-terrace. Two interruptions are visible towards its eastern end before it angles southwards to disappear into a wood. Observed over 1100 m.Source: Cambridge University Collection. BDE35, BDE36, BKC40.Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle upon Tyne. A1656–1662.2. Ewart 2. NT95353165 to NT95803159Lying to the south of Ewart 1 and running broadly parallel to it. The pit sizes and spacing is similar to Ewart 1 although their inter-relationship is obscured at their eastern end by a plantation. Ewart 2 fades away at its western extremity. Observed over 300 m.Source: Cambridge University Collection. BDE35, BDE36.
r o g e r m i k e t a n d b e n j a m i n e d w a r d s , w i t h c o l m o ' b r i e n Excavation at Thirlings, Northumberland revealed very extensive pit and post-pit features of Neolithic date. Some were suggestive of circular, trapezoidal and possibly rectangular structures. Radiocarbon dates indicate activity commencing around the beginning of the fourth millennium bc and continuing intermittently until at least the mid-third millennium bc. The pottery assemblage was substantial, and included Early Neolithic Carinated Bowl, and later Neolithic pottery in a variety of impressed styles that include Peterborough Wares as well as Grooved Ware. This collec tion adds considerably to the pottery record from the period in Northumberland. There was some evidence for cereal cultivation. Spatial analysis of deposition on the site was undertaken alongside the abrasion analysis of the pottery sherds. Mechanisms to explain the findings are discussed, and the nature of occupation on the site is interpreted in light of recent thinking on the nature of the British Neolithic.
To the north of Milfield, Northumberland the A697 cuts through a cluster of ring-ditches centred at NT933347. Discovered during aerial survey by Professor N. McCord, these were included in Dr A. Harding's survey of the ritual henges and related monuments of the Milfield Basin (Harding 1981, 101). Subsequent aerial reconnaisance by Mr T. Gates has increased the number of visible ring-ditches to at least eleven and, of these, three types may be tentatively isolated (fig. 1). The smallest appears to have a diameter no greater than 3.5 m, but with a ditch some 2 m in width (3 examples); in the second type the ditch appears less than a metre in width, but enclosing a larger area estimated at between 9 and 20 m (3 examples). A single example (Site 1 below) lies outside these dimensions and it was this, together with an example from the second group, that was chosen for excavation in 1982 and 1983.
Complete excavation in igji confirmed the Roman date and provided a complete plan of the fortlet at Barburgh Mill {NX 903884) which measured 29-50 m by 28-50 m within its single ditch and turf rampart. The entrance was defended by a gate of six timbers probably surmounted by a tower. It contained two timber buildings in plan appropriate for an infantry century. A latrine lay in one corner of the fortlet and two possible hearths between the two buildings. The fortlet was surrounded on the north and east by an outer rampart and ditch and the resulting enclosure subdivided by a medial ditch. The entrance of the outer enclosure was undefended. There was only one structural phase represented at the site and the pottery suggests a date in the Antonine I period, c. 142-58. When the site was abandoned the buildings were probably burnt, the rampart slighted and broken and surplus pottery dumped in the ditches.
The An Corran rockshelter, on the north-east coast of the Trotternish peninsula, Skye, contained a series of shell midden and other deposits with evidence for human occupation from Mesolithic and later periods. A rescue investigation of the site in the winter of 1993-94, immediately prior to anticipated total destruction by rock-blasting for roadworks, included the excavation of a trench dug down to bedrock. A total of 41 separate contexts were identi-fied. Of these, 31 were recent or later prehistoric, the upper levels containing a series of hearths of recent date and an Iron Age copper-alloy pin. The lowest 10 layers were identified initially as Mesolithic on the basis of bone tool and lithic typology, but a series of 18 radiocarbon dates indicates they contain the residues of subsequent prehistoric activity as well. These layers consisted of several distinct areas of midden, below which there were two, possibly three, horizons which probably, based on the presence of broad blade microliths, represent Early Mesolithic activity. The midden layers also contained some human bones radiocarbon-dated to the Neolithic period. The rockshelter was located below an outcrop of baked mudstone and near a source of chalcedonic silica. Both these lithic raw materials were widely used during the Mesolithic as far away as the island of Rum.
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