| Summary : A Later Neolithic site in Firtree Field circa 200 metres north of the Dorset Cursus (Linear 41), discovered during excavations focused on the Bronze Age enclosure SU 01 SW 84. Some Neolithic material had already been evident in the general surface scatter of material, and excavations revealed two clusters of Neolithic pits plus a single outlier, and a scatter of stakeholes that do not conform to the plan of the Bronze Age settlement. A northern group featured 7 pits, while 8 were present in the southern group, though this latter cluster may have extended beyond the limits of the excavated area. The majority of the pits contained sherds of Grooved Ware, though 3 also featured some Peterborough Ware. Other finds included a range of flint and stone artefacts, including axes, arrowheads, scrapers and knives; animal bones, boars' tusks, antler, and carbonised cereal. Several of the deposits had a formal, 'placed' appearance amd involved complex sequences of deposition and infilling. Radiocarbon dates confirm a broad early to mid-3rd millennium BC date. |