Ritual Enclosures at Whitton Hill, Northumberland

Abstract

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.

Excavations at the Sarn-y-bryn-caled cursus complex, Welshpool, Powys, and the timber circles of Great Britain and Ireland

“…Peterborough sherds from Mortlake vessels were found at Dorchester V and VI (Atkinson et al i95i)but from secondary contexts in the pit fills providing termini ante quos dates for the monuments. Peterborough and Grooved Ware were both recovered from Whitton Hill (Miket 1985). Peterborough and Grooved Ware were both recovered from Whitton Hill (Miket 1985).…”

“…These posts probably stood c. 3 m high based on the depth of the post-hole with consideration for the depth of the original topsoil. Thin and thick lines represent the 68% and 95% confidence level date ranges respectively Site 2 at Whitton Hill, Northumberland (Miket 1985) has a shallower ditch than Sarn-y-bryn-caled but had an external bank and pits flanking the entrance. There is a nearidentical cropmark at Clanfield, Oxfordshire (Harding & Lee 1987, no.…”

“…Other Grooved Ware associated sites are Balfarg (Mercer 1981a), Dorchester 3 (Whittle et al 1992), Machrie Moor I (Haggarty 1991), West Kennet (Whittle 1992), and Knowth (Eogan & Roche 1993). At Coneybury henge (Richards 1990) Grooved Ware came from the henge ditch as did the sherds from Moncrieffe (Stewart 1985) and Whitton Hill (Miket 1985). Grooved Ware was recovered from the ditch and the interior at Lawford (Shennan et al 1985).…”

Geoarchaeology of the Milfield Basin, northern England; towards an integrated archaeological prospection, research and management framework

“…Less well-known in the basin and its periphery are the remains of other periods, including Mesolithic flintwork (Waddington, 2000) and rock shelter sites (Burgess 1972), Bronze Age cremation cemeteries (e.g. Short, 1931;Miket, 1985Miket, , 1987 and house sites (Monaghan, 1994), including some with associated field systems (Burgess 1984), and late Bronze Age and Iron Age defended sites (e.g. Tate, 1862;Burgess, 1984;Smith, 1990).…”

A Landscape Archaeological Study of the Mesolithic-Neolithic in the Milfield Basin, Northumberland

“…In 1976 Miket, with regard to the Neolithic remains of the Milfield basin, stated that "perhaps the major constraint on any attempt at synthesis [is] the obvious and glaring incompleteness of the record" (Miket 1976, 124). However, twenty years on, subsequent excavations on other Neolithic remains by Miket (1985), Harding (1981) and , together with the author's fieldwalking programme, new palaeoenvironmental data (Tipping 1992; in press; Passmore and Waddington) and a reinterpretation of the local prehistoric rock art sequence (Waddington 1998a) have provided a wider body of information from which to reconstruct an understanding of the Early Neolithic in the Milfield basin (see also…”