Prehistoric Excavations at King's Dyke West, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire: A Terminal Bronze Age Settlement near Moreton's Leam

Abstract

An excavation was undertaken in advance of clay extraction at Whitlesey, King's Dyke West, following a watching brief discovery of prehistoric settlement features. The excavation revealed evidence for a dispersed, apparently unenclosed, Late Bronze Age settlement located along the north-western tip of Whittlesey Island and close to the Flag Fen basin. Situated opposite Fengate, the exposed area of settlement consisted of five roundhouses, some four-post structures and multiple pit features. Post Deverel-Rimbury pottery was recovered from many of the buildings and repeatedly from the left-hand side of the structures. One of the buildings produced evidence of episodic feasting, where the remains of many butchered lambs had been buried in a cluster of small pits in the centre of the building or on the left-hand side of its threshold. Accompanying the first of these burials were fragments of an elaborately decorated jar, unique amongst the settlements ceramic assemblage. Outside, pits containing broken saddle querns, incinerated pottery sherds, fire-cracked loom weights and calcined pig bones were encountered, frequently located immediately north of surviving structures. The recurrent, patterned fragmentation and disarticulation of objects prior to their incorporation into the floors and other living spaces within the settlement suggests something other than simple discard.