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Archived News ~ Week ending Friday 23rd April 2004.
Nosterfield Quarry - Test Pits
After the winter season, topsoil stripping has resumed at Nosterfield Quarry. Only a single area of the site remains to be stripped in the current phase of work. This 3.4ha area is located immediately to the east of that covered in last year’s watching brief where two square enclosures and a pit containing the remains of four horses were discovered (see archived news, 12th December 2003).
During an early phase of quarrying in 1999, a concentration of pits and postholes were recorded on the southeastern side of Flask Lane (Intervention 1). Many of these were dated by pottery to the Neolithic period. Topsoil stripping undertaken during the current phase of work has shown that this concentration of Neolithic features does not continue to the northeast. In order to test whether the Neolithic activity did not extend into the area or had been removed by differential ploughing regimes, a series of 31 sieved test pits were undertaken across the remaining area to the northwest of Flask Lane before topsoil stripping began.
The test pits were excavated at 10m intervals along seven transects. Three transects were aligned to form a 20m grid which was positioned as close as possible to Intervention 1. The other four transects were located to provide optimum coverage of the remaining area. Ploughsoil from the test pits was excavated in 10cm spits and sieved through a 10mm mesh. A sample from each spit was sieved through a 5mm mesh in order to retrieve microliths. All finds were retained and recorded.
A total of nineteen finds were recovered. Among these were ten fragments of pottery, six of which were modern, three medieval and one Roman. Other finds included a fragment of modern glass, a piece of brick, a piece of tile, and some recent ironwork. Only three pieces of flint were recovered during the sieving. Of these one appears to have been deliberately struck and may be a waste flake.
The lack of lithic material recovered from the ploughsoil suggests that the concentration of Neolithic activity recorded in Intervention 1 does not continue to the northeast of Flask Lane. If it had, and had been ploughed out, then a far larger assemblage of flint would have been recovered during the sieving. The reason for the distribution is not clear, although it may be due to a series of topographical anomalies and areas of marl and peat that are now being defined in the watching brief area.
Topsoil stripping began in the last remaining area of Intervention 5 on the 16th April. To date only a small area has been stripped and is currently being investigated.
