Brean Down |
| Hob Uid: 617209 | |
Location :
Somerset
Sedgemoor
Brean
|
| Grid Ref : ST2962158702 |
| Summary : A curving gully was excavated in the early 1980s and yielded a leaf-shaped arrowhead, a flake, and Grooved and Peterborough wares, suggesting a possible settlement. Radiocarbon dating suggests a date of 2770BC +/- 140 years, placing the finds well within the Late Neolithic period. In 1936 a beaker pot was found in a pit on the foreshore and dated to 1510BC +/- 80. This is very late for a Beaker vessel, and the dates may be unreliable. |
More information : (ST 296587 located from plan-Fig 3) The earliest activity located by Martin Bell's excavations on Brean Down included a curving gully containing a leaf-shaped arrowhead and an unretouched flake. The re-examination of the pottery assemblage from Apsimon's excavations located Grooved and Peterborough Ware. One of the radiocarbon dates gives an earlier Neolithic date 4720+/-140 BP which is earlier than Grooved Wares from Southern Britain. This probably relates to a preceding phase of activity, possibly woodland clearance.
Beaker pottery was first recovered in 1936 when a pit was discovered on the foreshore. It contained a Maritime beaker (3460+/-80 BP) and may cast doubts on accepted views of beaker development, although radiocarbon dating produces imprecise chronology for beakers. The pit has been generally interpreted as a burial lost by decalcification, although the survival of bone from the 1985 excavations has cast doubts on this. The quantity and distribution of artefacts does not indicate intensive activity on the old land surface. The presence of cultivation marks indicates settlement either eroded by the sea or situated further inland. (1)
The Martime bell beaker has decoration which has slight differences from the norm in that the lines defining the zones are made by twisted cord and the infilling by toothed comb. (2) |