Internet Archaeology 5. West Heslerton Assessment. 3.6.3

3.6.3 Other feature classes

In addition to the principal feature classes, a large number of small class groups deserve attention here; this group of contexts includes the prehistoric features amongst which are two small and currently undated cremation cemeteries, a number of inhu mations of Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age date, and what appears to be an undeveloped Neolithic mortuary structure. Two cut skull fragments, one cut medially and the other laterally, recovered from one of the nearby Roman ditches, appear to be residua l and related to this structure. The series of Fengate/Peterborough and Grooved Ware pits from the Heslerton Project area is considerable, but their distribution, which falls off rapidly in the heavier soils and harder subsoils of the settlement, implies perhaps that this area remained wooded and under-utilised.

Small-scale occupation during the Middle Bronze Age on the gravel subsoils to the east of the stream channel towards the northern limit of the later settlement seems only to have been short lived and left little evidence.

A number of pits, including one large group on the east bank of the stream, relate to gravel extraction during the Roman period and to the extraction of iron-rich chalk marl which seems to have been the preferred medium for the construction of furnaces and hearths in the Anglo-Saxon period.

Two metal-working furnaces and a malt-kiln were examined in the craft/industrial zone; these, with a number of other furnaces located in the southern part of the settlement, and slags which have been assessed by Jane Cowgill, indicate that smithing at least was taking place on site. There is clearly a need to identify whether this was a part of an ongoing manufacturing process or the product of peripatetic smiths. A small number of hearths were dated using archaeomagnetic techniques; however, the preci sion of the dates returned is such that we can only be sure that most of the hearths were Saxon rather than Roman in date.

During the medieval period, perhaps soon after the desertion of the settlement, a rig and furrow field system was established over the site. The spatial analysis of the material contained in the furrows and in the less disturbed adjacent areas offer so me potential for identifying levels of plough damage and artefact disturbance associated with ancient agriculture, and requires only a data sampling approach.