1. Introduction

P. Davenport, A. Hunt and D. Hurst

Final work on the Blackstone excavation archive was framed as a backlog archaeological project arising from pre-PPG16 gravel extraction. The aim was to unlock the archive's potential to contribute to the research debate about the region in the Iron Age, in particular the apparent contrast between south and north Worcestershire in that period, and to inform management strategies relating to future mineral extraction in the wider region.

An audit was first carried out on the archive (Hurst and Pearson 2007), followed by an assessment (Hurst et al. 2007). The current report retains the results of the 1979 Iron Age site structural analysis largely intact, and it is accompanied by a modern commentary, allied with the updated finds and environmental reporting, and overall discussion. The purpose of this has been to provide an example of archaeological interpretation changing across a span of 30 years (1979-2008) in order to demonstrate its evolving nature. Only limited review of site analysis carried out up to 1979 was possible given the constraints on the project budget, and no overall new site analysis was undertaken.

1.1 Aims

The completion of the site reporting is intended to deliver the following in terms of English Heritage core ALSF Priority Objectives 1-3 (Hurst et al. 2007):

to characterise further the Iron Age archaeological remains of north-west Worcestershire through the detailed analysis and reporting on the 1970s excavations, with special reference to a comparison between the contrasting pictures of Iron Age settlement patterns in north and south Worcestershire (especially Conderton Camp and Beckford). In this area, the site at Blackstone provides the only extensively sampled example of an Iron Age settlement. Associated artefactual and environmental assemblages have the potential to provide important information relating to the economic basis of the settlement. There is also the potential for comparison with assemblages from better understood areas of the county and the West Midlands as a whole and thus to reveal any local variations that might be present (ALSF PO1);
to inform the strategic management process relating to similar sites and sites of similar period through the provision of data on a site in north Worcestershire where Iron Age sites have rarely been excavated (ALSF PO1 and 2);
to augment regional research by developing appropriate themes as identified in Exploring our Past (EoP98), and the West Midlands Research Framework (Hurst 2002), where, for instance, aggregate areas have been identified as having a particularly significant role for understanding the nature of later prehistoric settlement (ALSF PO1 and 2):

There should be adequate funding to realise the full potential of later prehistoric sites, and this should extend to the development of active research programmes. These would be particularly important for the investigation of specific types of sites (e.g. hillforts) which are highly characteristic of the region, and where developer-funded work is unlikely ever to facilitate any new study. Museum archives and finds from earlier important excavations and other discoveries should also be revisited with a view to fresh study.

to address the national research foci for the Iron Age defined by Haselgrove et al. (2001), such as working towards more tightly dated deposits (ALSF PO1 and 2);
to enable aspects of the site archive, including the artefacts in particular, to be made available to specific audiences, for the purposes of informing them about the past from a local and regional perspective (ALSF PO2 and 3), and;
to disseminate the overall results of the project in a way that reaches a larger audience, including the wider public (ALSF PO2 and 3).

The analysis and dissemination of the project archive also supports the recently defined wider strategic focus on the River Severn (English Heritage 2004) by contributing to the general understanding, research and future management of the archaeological resource in the river valley.

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