Community Archaeology event 2021.

From June 22nd to 1st July, LP Archaeology ran a Community Archaeology event over three sites suggested by a geophysics survey.

Two of the three sites indicated were opened, the bottom one which was the old Cattle Shed site and the new central one over a semi circular feature. No time was available to investigate the one at top right.

No further finds of any significance were made from the Cattle Shed but pieces of Iron Age pottery and pieces of bone were recovered from a shallow ditch in the other test pit. Here is the shallow ditch which showed up as a dark layer in the floor and side of the tests pit.

Some finds of more modern materials such as these nails, thin glass and pieces of pottery. 

There were also a selection of chips and bits and pieces of flint which could be the result of casual flint working. It is accepted that even in the Iron Age people would have prepared a sharp flint for a casual task as metal was still a rarity.

No real firm conclusion could be drawn as to the purpose of the ditch. A suggestion was made that it might have been part of a temporary structure such as a corral into which sheep and cattle would be herded at night for their own protection as large predators would still have been about at this time. Whatever the origin it is fascinating evidence that there was human activity on the Park more than 2000 years ago and pre AD.