More information : While excavating Blackpatch Hill flint mines (TQ 00 NE 5) and round barrows (TQ 00 NE 43) JH Pull also took the opportunity to investigate some nearby features which he interpreted as being the "dwelling sites, which had undoubtedly been occupied by the mining people." He examined several. They consisted either of circular, flat-bottomed and vertically sided excavations into the chalk, or of saucer shaped excavations. Generally dug 9-18" into the chalk and 8-20 ft diameter, artefacts recovered include potsherds, flint flakes, flint implements,`broken sandstone rubbers', animal bones and burnt flints. One of the features contained a group of 6 scrapers together in a heap, while another yielded a flint axe. According to Pull the flint implements were made from material identical to that obtained from the flint-mines. No hearths or areas of burning were noted. Pull published no plans, sections or illustrations of finds from these sites.
These "dwellings" were stated by Pull to be located "a little to the east of the spur of the hill on which the mines are located" on the upward sloping edge of a deep coombe. He noted that the "dwellings are widely scattered, their presence being indicated sometimes by slight depressions in the turf, but more usually by the extra greenness and shortness of the turf itself." Approximate location of TQ 098090 is an estimate based on the above statements and Pull's own published but unsatisfactory sketch plan. (1)
Curwen is rather sceptical concerning the identification of these features as the dwellings of the miners. Noting the importance of identifying the pottery from these features, he states that the few sherds shown to him by Pull "are of indeterminate character." (2)
The flint mining complex and associated monuments at Blackpatch were surveyed in February 1995 by RCHME as part of a project to record industry and enclosure in the Neolithic. Investigation of the Blackpatch site has included field survey, AP transcription and documentary research. Documentary information only survives as far as these 'dwelling' sites are concerned. The area where they were situated has been under the plough for some time. Pull's unpublished archives contain little additional information beyond what has been summarised from sources 1 and 2, and the nature of these 'dwellings' and their relationship to the mines and other monuments thus remains uncertain. Full details and discussion can be found in the archive report. (3) |