#ThrowbackThursday Chelmsford Park and Ride phase II

This #ThrowbackThursday we are remembering our work at the Chelmsford park and ride phase II site, Sandon.

We worked on this 0.8 hectare site back in June-July 2006, and a total of 216 archaeological features were excavated. There was some Late Bronze Age activity identified in part due to the dating of pottery. This included an area of post holes which could be interpreted as elements of domestic structures

Finds that include spindle whorls and oven debris suggest that site was used for domestic purposes. This likely included settlement occupation and an element of pastoral farming.

There were also two groups of cremation burials, thirty-two in total on the site. Carbon-14 dating of the cremations suggests they are contemporary with the pottery-dated domestic activity

A series of later field ditches suggest that the site was later converted to pastoral farming. Later pits also show that there was some undefined activity here in the Middle Iron Age.

To learn more about this site, check out CAT Report 418 at cat.essex.ac.uk.