Excavations at Ham Hill, Somerset (2013)

Abstract

The results of the final of three seasons’ excavations by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit and Cardiff University at Ham Hill, Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset are reported. Fieldwork in the summer of 2013 completed the excavation of the ditch to a large rectilinear enclosure, as well as two roundhouse eavesdrip-gullies and a cluster of pits outside of the enclosure, all dated to the Middle to Late Iron Age. The enclosure ditch was intensively examined and found to contain the remains of both semi-articulated and disarticulated human and animal bodies. These appear to have been deposited both before and during the deliberate levelling of the enclosure’s inner bank, which partially filled the ditch. (An isotope study of a sample of the human bone assemblage concludes that the individuals were predominantly local to Ham Hill, except for one that may have had Continental origins.) Additional episodes of ditch infilling were accompanied with discrete deposits of carbonised roots/tubers and grains; both of these main phases of deposition were associated with Glastonbury Ware pottery. No features internal to the enclosure have been assigned to the period of its use and its interior appears to have essentially then been ‘empty’. The two eavesdrip-gullies were situated to the north of the enclosure. None of their internal features could be assigned to their use; however, the entrance to one of these structures included two postholes within its gully terminals. A cluster of six shallow pits was located to the south of one of the structures. These contained very few artefacts, but two had each received a crouched adult burial. Four pits, isolated from the structures and main pit group, contained significant quantities of pottery, metalwork and clay loomweights. Along with the continuation of the Early to Middle Bronze Age fieldsystem, two Neolithic pit groups were examined and a possible third group was also identified. These contained pottery and worked flint variously dated to the Early and Late Neolithic, and they represent the first securely dated features of this period at Ham Hill. Trench 4 was newly opened along the southern arm of the ramparts, and an extension of Trench 2 on the north spur of the hill was also conducted. It was determined in Trench 4 that the ramparts had been severely truncated along its frontage, with extensive burrowing also impacting upon its interior rear-side deposits. Pottery dated the final use of the rampart there to no later than the earliest Middle Iron Age. A segmented ditch, sealed by the rampart, may be the continuation of a possible causewayed enclosure previously identified in Trenches 1 and 3, and for which a Neolithic date has been postulated. The deposits in Trench 2 proved to be complex, with four main phases of rampart construction attested to. Excavation there confirmed the presence of a Late Iron Age eastern entranceway into the hillfort; the sequence also revealed that an earlier, Middle Iron Age entranceway had subsequently been blocked but was later reinstated. Modified and disarticulated human remains were once again recovered from the later phases of usage. Owing to the rampart’s complexity, it was not possible to bottom the trench and examine the Early Iron Age rampart in detail.