2023 Lees Court Estate: Community Archaeological Excavation Reveals Newly Discovered Prehistoric Past
By Richard Taylor & Keith Parfitt
Excavations at Lees Court Estate have concluded for 2023 and revealed an intriguing Prehistoric landscape.
Throughout the excavations, several exciting discoveries have been made. To the west of Stringmans Field, a 25m ring ditch, initially thought to date from the Bronze Age, but initial ceramic spot-dating suggests it may have had Late-Neolithic origins and was used into the
Bronze Age, which puts a different archaeological slant on things.
The ring ditch is interesting; at one point, it is 2m wide, elsewhere 3m wide…then 4m. Why does it do this? It may be that different people were working to different standards. Regarding the middle, we have pretty much everything, and there is a sizeable Romano- British pit cut into the southwest segment of the monument.
Meantime, to the east of Stringmans Field, excavations at the Neolithic monument, partially excavated in 2019, revealed an exciting set of features and ditch work. Although no longer visible as an earthwork at ground level, the monument was visible as a geophysical anomaly below ground, indicated by the survival of infilled ditches surrounding three sides (north, west & east).
Work here discovered a ramp-like structure on the south side of the monument, flanking ditches on the east and west sides, and a ditch surrounding the north side much deeper than first thought. A small inner bank remains visible in section, and thinking has now shifted toward the monument fitting the basic plan of a mortuary enclosure; much of the above-ground structure has long since gone, leaving the ditch works, inner bank remnants and artefacts, including ceramics dating from
Early-Neolithic to Mid-Bronze Age, from the various fills to interpret the structure’s origin and function.
Over the two months, the Society had two successful open days which, were well-attended, and included site tours, and experimental archaeology at which Alex Read (newly-appointed KAS Student Ambassador) carried out the casting of various metal items from antiquity. We were also visited on-site by Harry Hill and KAS Patron, Jools Holland.
Thank you to all the volunteers who gave up their time to support this project and make it such an enjoyable success. Special thanks are extended to Lady Sondes
Plans are underway to return to the ring ditch and establish its origins next year… see you all in 2024.
