#ThrowbackThursday Birch Quarry 2003

This #ThrowbackThursday we shall take a quick look at some evidence of Prehistoric settlement in the area

CAT’s excavations at Birch Quarry in 2003 found the remains of a Middle Bronze Age cemetery close to the site’s south boundary!

Sixteen Middle Bronze Age urned and unurned cremation burials were excavated. The urns belong to the ‘Ardleigh Group’, a local variant of the Deverel-Rimbury assemblage in use from 1400-1200 BC, which is what allowed us to give them a Middle Bronze Age date.

It is really amazing that we are still able to find preserved Prehistoric items. Although they many not be as well-preserved as some Roman finds, we must remember that these can be hundreds or in some case thousands of years older!

More recently, we have seen a Bronze Age ring ditch burial turn up at one of our sites. I wonder which one….