Artefacts

D17 (pit, phase 4) Text D.5.

Chert form the Upper Greensand. Heavily battered - an effect unlikely to have been produced by natural causes. This type of chert is found in Dorset, and chert beds are reported to occur from the Maiden Newton area westwards. Lumps the size of this and D. 39 below are likely to have been imported. The chert beds of the Upper Greensand lie below the Chalk.

A group of predominantly Late Bronze Age - Early Iron Age pottery from Hog Cliff Hill, including sherds from haematite-coated bowls, was submitted for detailed fabric analysis in thin section under the petrological microscope. In addition, heavy mineral separation was carried out on four of the larger sherds. The object of the analysis was threefold: (1) to confirm the validity of a provisional fabric identification of the handspecimen (Table 1, printed), (2) to see if the fabrics might have been locally made or not, and (3) to compare the Hog Cliff Hill fabrics with certain other analyzed assemblages of roughly the same period in the region, e.g. Longbridge Deverill Cow Down, Eldon's Seat, Gussage all Saints and Rope Lake Hole. The site at Hog Cliff Hill lies partly on the Upper Chalk and partly on Bagshot Beds, closeby to Upper Greensand deposits, just southeast of Maiden Newton.

1) Soil samples

AM600732 (E quadrant IV)

No evidence for any industrial activity was found on examining the five samples. A small number of red particles were present in sample 2, the latest fill of pit E2 (phase 4), and these were analysed using powder x-ray diffraction (X.R.D.). Only quartz was detected which was presumably form the soil which contained sand. If haematite (∝-Fe 2O3) was present it was at too low a concentration to be detected (less than about 5%) even after selective sampling of the particles which appeared most likely to contain it. No other evidence of industrial activity, such as hammer scale, was found in any of the samples, although a few fragments of charcoal were present in sample 1, the fill of post hole E36 (phase 4).