'Between the Barrows' Archaeology Dig 2023
'Between the Barrows' is our community archaeology project, set up in 2016 in partnership with a small team of archaeologists led by Dr Chris Elmer, a lecturer at the University of Southampton.
Aerial photographs taken in the 1940s, plus later geophysical surveys, showed the presence of two large circular ditches on the site that is now Harmony Woods. They showed up as crop marks in the arable field because old ditches have more air and moisture in them than the surrounding soil, so plants growing above them grow taller or stay greener during drought. The size and shape of the ditches, and the prevalence of similar ones on other chalk downland hilltops in southern England, indicated they may be Bronze Age burial mounds, known as round barrows.
Archaeologists have categorised British prehistory (before the arrival of the Romans and written records) into three broad ‘Ages’, based on the progression of materials used for tools and other artifacts - the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. The Bronze Age followed the Neolithic (late Stone Age) and began in approximately 2500 BC (4500 years ago), lasting until around 800 BC (2800 years ago). People came over to Britain from mainland Europe, bringing with them new cultural practices and skills including the smelting of copper and tin to make bronze. One of the new practices was to bury high-status people individually in their own circular burial mounds, rather than to expose bodies to the elements to decompose and then burying the bones in a communal long barrow which could be used for generations. Burial mounds were constructed by digging a ditch and using the excavated soil to form a large mound covering the burial chamber in the centre. The barrows in Harmony Woods were ploughed flat over the millennia and the ditch was filled in, and no visible trace of them remains above ground.
The ‘Between the Barrows’ project began as school visits to Harmony Woods in 2016, 2018, and 2019, where the archaeologists would hold workshops and talk about the Bronze Age. After running geophysical surveys, in 2020 they began digging test trenches to try and determine the exact location of one of the barrows. In 2021, while digging out the footings for the main timber supports for the Cabin, the ditch surrounding one of the barrows was discovered. And last year in 2022 the archaeologists were joined by a small team of ATU volunteers to excavate a cross-section of the ditch.
Following three years of shorter, smaller excavations not open to the public due to Covid-19 restrictions, this year we were delighted to once more be able to invite schools and members of the public to work alongside the archaeologists as they excavate a second trench, which would hopefully reveal the other side of the barrow ditch and confirm a circular feature.
The archaeologists - Dr Chris Elmer, Dr Alex Walker, and Dominic Barker - arrived on Saturday 24th June to set up camp with help from the ATU team. On Sunday 25th they were joined by volunteers to de-turf the second trench. Over the following two weeks there were school group visits three days a week, community dig days open to the general public two days a week, and a visit from Southampton Young Archaeologist's Club. The archaeologists also had a few days by themselves for recording.
Schoolchildren were able to have a go at excavating in the trench, using archaeological trowels to scrape away layers of soil and looking out for the tell-tale signs of worked flint, sieving the soil removed from the trench to find any worked flint that may have been missed, and helping to clean the flint finds. They learned about archaeological methods by uncovering a replica human skeleton and its associated objects, recording the 'burial', and thinking about who the person might have been thousands of years ago. They also had a go at tie-dyeing, an ancient craft that people from cultures all over the world have been doing for centuries and still do today. Indigo dye, which comes from a tropical plant, was used to save time as native plant dyes which would have existed in Britain 4000 years ago require heat to work.
The cross-section of the ditch found in the first trench, partially excavated last year, was completed and cleaned up, revealing the sloped side of the ditch dug into the chalk bedrock. Last year a flint scraper, which would have been used for processing animal hides, was found at the bottom of the ditch, which means it was deposited there shortly after the barrow’s construction, before soil began to fill the ditch once again. This year an animal bone was found in the ditch fill.
This year a number of finds were discovered in the second trench. There were many pieces of struck flint (has a horizontal striking platform and a bulb of percussion created by the force of the blow), some worked flint (has sharpened/worked edges to be used for some purpose), a few flint scrapers (one with a particularly lovely translucent colour), and a ‘horned scraper’ used for working wood to make curves. Perhaps most exciting were the two shards of pottery - found by a schoolchild and a volunteer - thought to be from the Late Neolithic / Early Bronze Age period. During excavations archaeologists look for artifacts that can help confirm the date of the feature they're investigating, so they were really happy to find these. One piece had been decorated simply by the person who made it, thousand of years ago, pinching their thumb and forefinger into the clay. On closer inspection it was red on the outside and black inside, indicating it could have possibly been an urn filled with cremated remains.
All participants were sent an evaluation form at the end of the two weeks. The school children wrote that they particularly liked digging up the skeleton and sieving the soil for flint, and said it was “super fun” and “epic”, and that they would like to do it again and stay for longer in future. Around 180 children and 45 volunteers (including a team from Be Wiser Insurance) took part. Thank you to everyone who did, we hope you enjoyed it.
At the end of the two weeks all the cleaned and recorded finds were bagged up to be taken for storage at the University of Southampton. The two trenches have now been covered and protected to keep them, and people, safe until excavation can continue. The second trench is not yet complete, there is still a long way to go before (hopefully) finding and revealing the other side of the ditch, so we look forward to next year.
Finally - This is a passion project for the archaeologists, who use their annual leave for this dig, so we would like to extend a particular thank you to them for coming back again each year, and working with us to provide this wonderful opportunity for the local community.
