Neolithic and Bronze Age Pits and a Late Iron Age Linear Ditch at Salisbury Road, Hungerford, West Berkshire (Paperback)

A programme of archaeological fieldwork in advance of a housing development at Salisbury Road, Hungerford, revealed prehistoric features dispersed widely across the site. The excavation investigated a small cluster of Earlier Neolithic pits along with three isolated pits of similar date, a cluster of Late Neolithic pits, Bronze Age activity and a linear ditch of Late Iron Age to Roman date. One Early Neolithic pit was especially rich in finds, with close to 2000 stuck flints, and sherds of pottery from at least eleven vessels. The prehistoric chronology is supported by radiocarbon dates. The survival of mollusc shells provided information on the palaeoenvironment in the Early Neolithic and from the Late Iron Age/Early Roman period up to the present day. A notable find was a Roman iron lamp from the linear ditch. The ditch seems to have taken several centuries to fill in completely.