Excavations at a Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure, Orsett, Essex, 1975

Abstract

The Causewayed Enclosure at Orsett, Essex, was trial trenched in 1975 to determine the state of site preservation and confirm its postulated Neolithic date and site sequence. The enclosure consisted of three incomplete circuits of discontinuous ditch with an associated timber palisade slot lying inside and concentric to the middle ditch. Within the interior was an oval post hole structure of a contemporary date. Quantities of Mildenhall style pottery and flint artifacts of the mid third millennium b.c. were recovered from the primary ditch silts and other features. A small quantity of Late Neolithicf Early Bronze Age wares came from the secondary ditch silts and the interior. Later phases on the site were represented by unenclosed Early Iron Age occupation, a Middle Iron Age sub-rectangular enclosure and Saxon ring-ditch burials.

An Early Neolithic Grave and Occupation, and an Early Bronze Age Hearth on the Thames Foreshore at Yabsley Street, Blackwall, London

“…The Thames Valley is one of the major topographic zones for evidence of earlier Neolithic settlement within the British Isles. The middle and lower sections of the valley are well-represented with monumental sites, such as at Orsett, Essex (Hedges & Buckley 1978) and Yeoveney Lodge, Staines, Surrey (Robertson-Mackay 1987), stray finds of flint and stone axes (Chappell 1987), pottery, and leaf-shaped arrowheads (MoLAS 2000, 68). Much less evidence is recorded which can be readily interpreted as representing occupation, with sites such as Runnymede Bridge being exceptional (Needham & Stig-Sorensen 1988).…”

An Interim Report on Excavations at Etton, Maxey, Cambridgeshire, 1982–1984

“…i960). (Hodder and Evans 1982-83) and Orsett, Essex (Hedges and Buckley 1978), both situated in areas comparable with Etton, might also be seen as a way of improving an otherwise impractical means of land management. Jones and Bond 1980, fig.…”

A Late Bronze Age Landscape at South Hornchurch, Essex

“…A number of Late Bronze Age sites have been recorded to the north of the Thames in south-west Essex and north-east Greater London, including the extensive prehistoric landscape with two ringwork enclosures at Mucking, some 15 km to the east of Hornchurch (Jones & Bond 1980;Bond 1988;Clark 1993), and settlements at Orsett (Hedges & Buckley 1978), Whitehall Wood (Greenwood 1986), and Hunts Hill Farm (Greenwood 1997). An apparent expansion of settlement in this period accords with the high density of Late Bronze Age metalwork in the Thames within the Greater London area.…”