walpole landfill site, pawlett, somerset the archaeology · companion to his two cba volumes:...

C. and N. Hollinrake Consultant Archaeologists

Walpole Project Update November 2014 1

WALPOLE LANDFILL SITE, PAWLETT, SOMERSET

the archaeology

Evolution of the landscape on the shores of the Bristol Channel

sponsored by

PROJECT UPDATE 4

th November 2014

worked

Neolithic stake

The watching brief

Although we thought the watching brief was finished in September, a few

more days of observation were necessary in early October. The rest of the month was

taken up with washing, recording and photographing the prehistoric wood recovered

from the site.

On October 29th

the site portacabin was emptied and cleaned.

The Structures

146 items of worked & numbered wood have been recorded & recovered on

site during the 2014 archaeological watching brief. Some of the numbers referred to

groups of large upright stakes, which, when numbered individually, amounted to 172

individual pieces of worked wood.

The worked wood was almost exclusively associated with three wooden

structures (Structures 18, 19 & 21) with some isolated worked wood associated with

ancient channels and a small collection of un-worked bog trees (<20 items – mostly

recorded as Structure 20). The structures have been relatively dated to the early

Neolithic (S18), the middle Neolithic (S19) and the Bronze age periods of pre-history

(S21) by their respective stratigraphic positions.

The early Neolithic wooden material from S18, is very rare both on the site

and for the country as a whole. One of the horizontal worked wood elements of S21

was seen to have been pollarded, examples of which are similarly very rare.

The recovered wood has now been sorted and quantified in the following

table. Preliminary suggestions for the analysis for the different pieces of wood have

been added to this table as a working discussion document towards finalizing the post-

excavation strategy for this body of wood. Richard Brunnings spent a day inspecting

the wood and recording the tool marks and his arising comments and

recommendations have been added to this table. The final programme of specialist

analyses will be based upon this table after suitable consultation with all interested

parties.



type of wood number context analysis

Structure 18 (Early Neolithic)

20 4x (20%) species ID pegs

1 ass. with W7 C14 date

plank 1 (W7)

worked roundwood W7 cut by polished stone

axe

Structure 19 (Middle Neolithic)

worked roundwood 10 from

superstructure

species ID

18 total worked roundwood

1 (W150)

from

substructure C14

? species ID

W91 cut both ends ?conserve

beaver-cut

roundwood

W73 ?conserve

C14 1 (W48)/

(WG17) species ID

C14 1 (W87)/

(WG26) species ID

C14 1 (W15)/

(WG27) species ID

C14 1 (WG127)

species ID

C14

worked wood from

wood groups

1 (WG128)

(1922)/ channel

[1932]

species ID

25 <182> species ID

1 (W163)

superstructure

C14

25 <183> species ID

brush wood

1 (W145)

substructure

C14

peat samples 2 <480>

<481>

(1912)

Structure 20

22 total bog trees

10 species ID

Structure 21 (Bronze Age)

> 10 pieces species ID worked round wood

2 C14

total 203 pieces

Table of prehistoric wood recovered during 2014 with samples and suggestions for

further analyses.



Processing the wood

Tables were set up next to the wood tank so that the wood could be scrubbed clean,

labelled and recorded. The archaeologists’ portacabin was reorganized to record the

cleaned wood with a wet table for labelling and a separate table with a backdrop for

photographs. Viridor engineer Morag Aitkin visited during these operations.

When the wood was washed, recorded and photographed, Richard Brunning was

contacted to arrange a date for his specialist recording of the tool marks and

recommendations for further research.

Richard noted that most of the brushwood and worked wood from Structure 19

carried tooth marks of beavers. Initial interpretation is that this structure originated as

a beaver lodge, which was adapted by the people using the Lias island for their own

uses. This would explain the unusual inter-connecting palaeochannels below S19

observed during the fieldwork. Many pieces of beaver-cut wood showed compression

bends, suggesting that they were green when deposited.

The palaeochannels associated with Structure 19 show as pale grey alluvial silts.

Dr. Bryony Coles, formerly of the Somerset Levels Project and now Emeritus

Professor of Archaeology at the University of Exeter, has been making a special study

of ancient beaver activity. She is to be consulted on this special category of

prehistoric wood and the impact of beaver activity on the interpretation of Structure

19.

Samples

During Richard’s recording visit samples were taken from all of the main worked

wood and from all of the bog trees for identification. The identification samples

consisted of cross sections, 5cm-8cm thick, sawn from the end of the wood opposite

the worked ends (or the roots, in the case of the bog trees). These can also be used for

radiocarbon dating.

The worked ends of all pegs, poles and stakes were sawn off and retained. All beaver

marked wood was retained.

All wood not kept for samples was discarded on site.



Publication

Richard Brunning recommended that the Walpole results 1999 – 2014 be the subject

of a monograph by the Council for British Archaeology. We have already been in

touch with Prof. Martin Bell, who is helping us to lay out our Walpole book as a

companion to his two CBA volumes: Prehistoric Coastal Communities: The

Mesolithic in Western Britain (vol. 149) and The Bronze Age in the Severn Estuary

(vol. 172).

Once the fieldwork report is finished we will begin compiling the book.

Gallery

Structure 19 represents one of the most complex and

complete wooden structures recorded from the

Walpole Landfill Site, with the majority of the

recovered worked wooden

artefacts originating from

this structure. Brushwood

was laid upon longer poles

and stabilized with pegs

and posts. In many cases,

as here, the longer poles

were laid within a pool

among several

palaeochannels (see the

photograph above).

A hitherto unrecorded

feature appeared in S19

in the form of clusters

of large posts, which

were given group

numbers as well as

individual wood

numbers. The location

of this structure on a

nexus of

palaeochannels

suggests that these

groups of strong stakes

were probably used as

mooring posts.



Structure 21, which appears to be the first Bronze Age structure recorded on

the site, contained two very large examples of worked wooden timber laid

horizontally behind several long worked upright wooden stakes. Most of this

structure was destroyed by modern disturbance, but its location on the bank of a large

palaeochannel suggests it was formerly used as a landing stage. .

For purposes of comparison, a photograph of a traditional style landing stage from the

medieval port at Bucklers Hard is included1.

Thanks again for all your support for our work.

Nancy Hollinrake

5th

November 2014

1 Plate D7: WA4077. Remains of the post-medieval landing stage at Buckler's Hard, New Forest Rapid

Coastal Zone Assessment Survey Phase 2: Field Assessment, Prepared by Wessex Archaeology, Report

ref.: 72201.1, December 2010

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