Kingsmead Quarry, Horton
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Ongoing excavations at Kingsmead Quarry, Horton, Berkshire (begun in 2003), have revealed a vast and complex archaeological landscape, identifying an extensive history of development from Late Glacial (12,000 BC) to the post-medieval period.
Lying within the archaeologically rich landscape of the Middle Thames Valley, the excavations have revealed a wealth of information surrounding the continued and extensive inhabitation of the valley.
Important Neolithic evidence, including a rare Early Neolithic building, a cluster of Early Neolithic pits, and a scatter of Late Neolithic Grooved Ware pits were located on the site. A large Early Bronze Age penannular ring ditch, likely to belong to a barrow or a henge, contained quantities of pottery, including Collared Urn. The Middle Bronze Age saw a major reorganisation of the landscape, marked by the large-scale sub-division of the land by boundaries and rectilinear enclosures. Two farmsteads were identified; both featuring associated roundhouses, waterholes, pits and postholes. Each farmstead contained evidence for cultural and economic activities, including the deposition of animal burials, Bucket and Globular Urn pottery, and the placed deposition of significant metalwork. A decorative pin of ‘Picardy’ type showing incised linear motif decoration and a quoit-headed pin were both associated with the Ornament Horizon of North-West Europe. Evidence for the Iron Age period was limited, with examples of settlement and agricultural activity, whilst a substantial Romano-British farmstead, originating shortly after the conquest, showed signs of a major re-organisation of the landscape. The agricultural enclosure system included pits, postholes and waterholes, and artefactual evidence suggests a prolonged period of use. Scant evidence of Saxon and medieval activity was recorded, and fragmentary evidence of post-medieval involvement on the site may suggest contemporary activity with the medieval Horton Manor. A number of palaeochannels were also recorded within and to the edges of archaeological areas and ranged in both date and size.
Further phases of excavation at Horton are set to continue for a number of years.
Related information
- Find out about the Neolithic house discovered at Kingsmead Quarry (News, June 2008).
The Stone Age
Flint Long-BladesAmongst the objects recovered were a number of flints dating to the end of the last Ice Age, a period which archaeologists call the Late Upper Palaeolithic (12,000-10,000BC). At this time Britain was still joined to mainland Europe.
The long bladed flints would havebeen used as knives and may have been brought to the site by people hunting and gathering along rivers like the Thames.
A scatter of pits was found, dating from the Neolithic period(4000-2400BC). By this time Britain was an island and people had started to grow crops and keep animals. Some of the pits contained deliberately broken and placed objects such as pots.
Early Bronze Age
Flint worker's 'tool kit'
An Early Bronze Age pit (2400-1500BC) contained a remarkable collection of flints and tools. These formed a flint worker’s tool kit, which included an awl or punch made of copper for making holes and a whetstone used for sharpening tools. The 'tool kit' may have been deliberately placed in the ground as a votive offering.
Barbed and tanged arrowheads
Flint Arrowheads
The distinctively shaped barbed and tanged arrowheads date to the Early Bronze Age. The arrowheads are thought to come from a number of different sources. Some of them can be grouped into pairs by their shape and size. Activity intensified in the Middle Bronze Age.
The Middle Bronze Age
On site excavations
During the Middle Bronze Age (1500-1100BC) there was a transformation in land use. A number of ditches marked field systems and the boundaries of farmland. Pits and waterholes were also used as markers. Archaeologists found no evidence of houses, these were probably located further away. A number of cattle burials indicate the importance of livestock at this time.
Bronze Quoit-headed pin
Finds from this period include a bronze quoit-headed pin found within a ditch and a complete pottery vessel at the bottom of a waterhole. The quoit-headed pin would have been used to fasten a cloak or a piece of clothing and may have been buried deliberately.
Globular urn
The pot was found in the base of the water hole. These globular urns are rarely found complete, and this one may have been carefully placed there as a votive offering. It has a number of lugs around it with holes in them, perhaps to allow it to be suspended over a fire. This pottery type is a fineware made at a time when bigger, coarser vessels, called bucket or barrel urns, were the more common style of pottery.
The Changing Landscape
Excavation revealed changing land use
By the Late Bronze Age there was a change in farming practices. Many of the fields were abandoned because they could no longer be farmed effectively. This may have been because the land had been over-farmed or because the area become much wetter, forcing people to live further away in higher, drier locations.
There is little evidence on the site of later periods. In the Iron Age (700BC-AD43) and Romano-British period (AD43-410), only small parts of the farmland remained. No trace of settlement survives. They have been washed away over time by a stream. In the channel left by the stream, archaeologists found a small Romano-British glass bead. Close by, in one of the surviving ditches, were the remains of a bow brooch of the same date.
The channel was canalised in the Post-medieval period (1500-1799). The remaining brick-built structure may have once been a bridge or a sluice.
Excavations at Kingsmead Quarry, Horton, Berkshire were commissioned by CEMEX UK Operations Ltd.
 Glass bead |
|  Sluice |
