Post on 14-Apr-2018
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Wessex Archaeology is one of the largest archaeological
practices in the UK, employing 200 archaeologists across four
regional offices in Salisbury, Rochester, Sheffield and Edinburgh.
We work with councils, developers, landowners and heritage
organisations to ensure that archaeological remains are recorded
and preserved before work begins on new development schemes.
Wessex Archaeology is funded by its commercial work and by
grant giving bodies.
Wessex Archaeology was established in 1979, and as a charity,
educating people about archaeology through lectures, events
and public outreach is central to our company ethos. We also
carry out building surveys, underwater archaeology, coastal
studies, heritage management, illustration and 3D computer
modelling, human remains analysis, finds and environmental
analysis and publication.
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Wessex Archaeology For moreinformation
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Excavations at Kingsmead Quarry have revealed a vast and
complex archaeological landscape. Since 2003 Wessex Archaeology
has painstakingly uncovered the hidden and forgotten history of
Horton, Berkshire.
In partnership with CEMEX UK, the excavations have revealed
a wealth of information about how people lived during the last
12,000 years, going back to the end of the last Ice Age. It covers a
time when people still hunted, to the arrival of farming, the first
appearance of metals and the influence of the Roman Empire.
The archaeological works have been project managed by
The Guildhouse Consultancy, and monitored by Berkshire
Archaeology on behalf of the local planning authority
(Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead).
Extracting the PastKingsmead Quarry, Horton
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For moreinformation
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Amongst the oldest finds found on the excavation was
a 300,000 year old hand axe found by a quarry worker.
Excavations also revealed a number of O ld Stone Age
(Palaeolithic) flint tools from around 12,000 10,000 BC.
Such tools were brought to the site by people hunting
and gathering along the Rivers Thames and Colne.
Some of these flints were recovered from a cluster of hollows
left by fallen trees, whilst an interesting flint scatter found in
2011 suggests that flint was knapped to make tools on the
site. At this time the sea level was far lower and Britain was
part of the European mainland.
Hunters of the river plain12,000 4000 BC
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Hortons pioneer farmers4000 3600 BC
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The excavations have revealed significant evidence for
occupation at the start of the Neolithic period. Finding
one building of this date is rare so far we have uncovered
the ground plans of four rectangular structures. Two were
post-built with possible walls of wattle and daub, and two
were made of split log walls. They were likely to have had
pitched roofs covered with thatch or turf. Finds of pottery,
bone objects, flint and stone tools indicate that these were
houses people lived in. Remains of plants show that wild foods
such as hazelnuts were gathered and that cereals were grown.
The houses could represent a small farming settlement,
hamlet or family group that shifted location, perhaps as people
died or the building became too decayed to live in. We do not
know if the houses were being used at the same time.
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The early farmers were also monument builders, which
took the form of earthen mounds or ditched enclosures.
These were often places of ritual ceremony in which
offerings and human burials were placed.
A large monument was also revealed on the site.
A U-shaped enclosure was surrounded by a later oval
barrow. In the inner ditch quantities of animal bone were
found, the probable remains of a feast. The outer ditch
contained interesting artefacts such as several birch bark
bowls, and pottery with fingernail impressed decoration.
A number of antlers were found which may have been
used to dig the ditches.
Ritual ceremony and offerings3600 3000 BC
The barrow monument was made by digging an oval ditch and using the soilto construct an earth mound. Barrows are normally associated with burials.
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The excavations have revealed a rare and important Beaker
burial. Such burials are found across Europe from around
2500 BC and coincide with the first use of copper and gold.
People were buried with a distinctive pot or Beaker, often
with fine objects of metal or stone. The person buried at
Horton is thought to have been a woman over 35 years old.
She was buried with beads made from gold, amber and
lignite (similar to jet). Few Beaker burials from Britain
contain gold ornaments, and most are associated with
men. This makes this burial particularly rare.
She was probably an important person within her
community, giving her access to prestigious, rare and
exotic items. She could have been a leader, a person
with power and authority.
A woman of importance2300 BC
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Around 3500 years ago, the landscape changed dramatically.
Trees were cleared and boundary ditches dug to create large
fields, enclosures, trackways and animal paddocks. The land
was divided into two individual farmsteads.
Both settlements had roundhouses, fencelines, pits and
waterholes, and were involved in rearing animals. Several
cattle burials indicate the importance of livestock to the
community at this time. The remains of barley and emmer
wheat that had been threshed and winnowed show us what
was grown in the fields.
Bronze, fields and farmsteads1500 700 BC
Two important bronze objects were found: a delicate quoit-headed pin
and an elegant decorative Picardy pin, these may represent offerings.
Both pins may have been used to fasten cloaks.
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At the end of the Late Bronze Age (700 BC) the earlier
field systems were abandoned. The land may have been
over-farmed or simply became too wet, forcing people
onto drier ground. We can also tell that the land was
not used as intensively into the Iron Age.
We have found the remains of some roundhouses which
would have had thatched roofs, two grain stores and lots
of pits. These were for quarrying clay for pottery making
and were then used for burying rubbish. One area of pits
may have been used for the production of clay loomweights.
Roundhouses and rubbish pits700 BC AD 43
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After the Roman conquest in AD 43 a large farmstead was
established. Formed by several paddocks and enclosures, it
probably produced cereals and meat, to be traded at the nearby
Roman town ofPontibus (Staines). Pottery found indicates that
the farm was used for several hundred years.
Finds also include farming tools such as axes and adze heads
(used for shaping wood), a hipposandal ( type of horseshoe),
a rare bronze cauldron and personal items such as brooches, rings,
an ear scoop and four leather shoes. Preserved seeds and grains
indicate that hay and cereals were produced on the farm alongside
the rearing of cattle. Decorated samian ware pottery from France
suggests a wide network of trade and exchange.
What the Romans did for HortonAD 43 410
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Little evidence was found for the Anglo-Saxon period
(AD 410 1066). This may suggest that people were already
settled in the hamlets and villages such as Wraysbury and
Horton. Around 800 years ago Horton Manor became the
focal point of the medieval landscape. The Domesday Book
of 1086 records the manor as having enough land to support
10 households and was owned by Walter son of Other.
There is evidence for small field systems, as well as ditches,
pits and a small oven or kiln. Isolated features such as wells and
animal burials were also found, as well as a large oval enclosure
possibly associated with the Manor. Later the land changed
again to be replaced with large fields for modern farming.
After the RomansAD 410 present
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making sense of heritage
wessexarchaeology
Wessex Archaeology offers a unique capability to the aggregates
industry, providing a comprehensive range of consultancy and
archaeological services for all types of scheme. As well as working
at many quarries across the country, we are the UKs leading
provider of archaeological services to the marine aggregates
industry. We also have long partnerships with many of the
leading aggregates companies, as well as with the British Marine
Aggregate Producers Association (BMAPA).
The large scale of extraction and its impact on the historical
environment requires early involvement of heritage specialists in
the planning and mitigation process. Wessex Archaeology provides
a full range of terrestrial and marine services including consultancy,
desk-based research, geophysical surveys, mitigation, publication
and outreach.
Working with the aggregates industryTerrestrial and marine
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Several of the artefacts found are rare and unusual, whilst
some are unique in the country. The Middle Bronze Age pins
are extremely rare finds with only a few of each type found in
Britain and on the Continent, whilst an Iron Age cauldron is
without parallel. The distinctive Neolithic pottery found in the
oval barrow is also very rare in southern England, and the
beads associated with the Beaker burial are unique in the UK.
We have found evidence that communities retained and looked
after these items, sometimes handing them down through
several generations before depositing them in unusual places.
It is likely that these essentially agricultural communities
were aware of, and possibly open to, influences from much
further afield.
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Unusual artefacts
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Some of the rarer finds appear to have travelled great distances
before they found their way to Horton, indicating a range of trade
and exchange networks were in place over thousands of years.
The two Middle Bronze Age pins appear to have made from
metal from the Continent. The Picardy pin may have come
from northern France.
Trade indicates a degree of economic prosperity, with a number
of prestigious and luxury objects coming to the site. The Beaker
gold beads may have come from Cornwall, the lignite beads
from East Anglia, the amber probably from the Baltic, Neolithic
stone axe from Cumbria and the Roman samian bowl from
southern France.
It is interesting to consider what was being exchanged
to allow such high status and prestigious finds to come
to the site. This may have been a surplus of some kind
ideal for trade, such as cattle or cereal.
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Trade and exchange networks
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The location of Horton has proved ideal for settlement and farming
for the last 6000 years. The natural resources of the gravel and clay
have been exploited since the first farmers of the Neolithic.
The archaeological remains have been preserved in the natural
brickearth, a type of clay buried beneath the modern ground surface,
but above the gravel. Machines are used to carefully remove the
topsoil and subsoil to reveal archaeological features which are seen
as dark marks in the ground. They represent features such as ditches,
gullies, postholes, pits for the disposal of rubbish and waterholes,
the latter providing the settlements with water. Archaeologists
hand-excavate these features, and the artefacts recovered help
us understand the ancient activities which have taken place.
CEMEX UK is pleased to fund this extensive 15 year programme of
archaeological work from excavation through to assessment and
analysis, ending in publication and deposition of the archive.
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Aggregates and archaeology
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Gravel extraction has been a common theme throughout the
history of Kingsmead. For the last 6000 years people have utilised,
exploited and extracted the natural resources of the landscape.
Quartzite pebbles were used as hammers, as rubbing stones for
grinding corn and as hearthstones. Flint was also collected from
the gravel for making everyday tools for cutting, skinning and
hunting. Gravel was also used to construct the enclosing banks
for fields and farmsteads, and from Roman times onwards for
roads and tracks.
Aggregate, sand and gravel was used in early concrete by the
Romans as an essential building material. Today aggregate is
still a vital part of concrete, an essential material of our
built environment.
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A ggregatesrchaeology and a
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CEMEX UK
making sense of heritage
CEMEX supplies vital building materials, cement, aggregates,
concrete and building products, to the construction industry. Our
materials are used in homes, roads, hospitals, schools and
in the built environment, helping to build a Greater Britain.
At Kingsmead Quarry, sand and gravel is quarried and used in local
construction projects and major ones such as M25 widening scheme
and T5 at Heathrow Airport.
We have a responsibility for the impact of our business on the
environment and communities and to preserve the land for
future generations.
While meeting the needs of communities for construction, we safe
guard our heritage, through archaeological investigations, restore
the land that has been quarried back to nature and care for the
environment through more sustainable products and operations.
all around
us
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