EAB12202 - Excavation - WAULKMILL

Excavation carried out by R. Bradley in September 2012 recorded features from the Neolithic to Roman Iron Age periods. A single shallow pit contained earlier Neolithic pottery, dating from between 4000 and 3500 BC, the fragments representing several vessels. The second phase of activity on the site is represented by the surviving traces of the stone circle. Four stone sockets were found suggesting the original monument was circa 16m in diameter: the stump of another standing stone remained in the ground. The arc of stone holes followed the same curve as a series of shallower features interpreted as the setting of a kerb, possibly defining an open area in the centre of the monument. It is unlikely to have been a recumbent stone circle and more likely it was a low circular cairn with an open space at its centre, the inner court defined by a wall of slabs, the outer kerb incorporating a circle of standing stones. There was no direct dating evidence for the circle, but it may have been built during the Early Bronze Age. Two deposits of cremated bone associated with the stone circle (one in a pit in the centre of the monument) are attributed to a phase of secondary use during the Late Bronze Age. Two Roman Iron Age graves were found beside the monument. One had probably contained a wooden coffin (or which no trace survived). A bronze penannular brooch and set of gaming pieces (similar to those found in a nearby quarry in the 19th century - see NJ40SE0024) were recovered. The second was a larger oval pit, in which the base of a wooden coffin survived Finds included two bronze rings. They possibly form part of a larger cemetery extending to the east.