An Archaeological Evaluation at Heathfields 2, Duxford, Cambridgeshire

Abstract

An archaeological evaluation was conducted on land at Heathfield, Thriplow and Whittlesford (Heathfields 2), centred on NGR TL4541 4599. Twelve trenches were machine excavated over the 2.79ha area of the investigation. Evidence for early Neolithic activity was discovered throughout the northern part of the evaluation area but only survived, with the exception of Trench H, as a flint distribution in the plough-soil. These flint scatters represent the remains of workshop areas during the early Neolithic where nodules of raw material underwent initial reduction and where cores and flake and blade blanks were produced for future use. It would appear, from the evidence recovered from Trench H, that natural fissures in the chalk were worked during the later Mesolithic period to extract flint. These geological fissures were places where good quality flint existed as visible outcrops and so as known places in the landscape for flint extraction. There was evidence for flint knapping in the hollow which had subsequently ben enlarged through digging for flint nodules and several micro-burins were recovered from the fill. This area was visited during the early Neolithic when small-scale flint-mining was carried out. A small shaft or pit was cut into the chalk to get directly at a new source of flint, the pit had a bell or boot shape profile to allow for the greatest number of flint nodules to be extracted from the pit. It is also likely that due to small-scale flint-mining the early Neolithic knapping floors are at ground surface around the lip of the feature as there was no room to work the flint nodules within the small shafts or pits and so the flint was brought to the surface in an unmodified state. There was also evidence for food having been cooked and hearths having been kept around this source of flint. A ditch was revealed and excavated in Trench I which during the Medieval period probably marked the area of common land amongst the small sub-divided fields of Thriplow Parish.