Beckton

NY18SW 95 1305 8243

Not to be confused with NY18SW 13.

While checking for the location of the chapel at Beckton (NY18SW 14), a Neolithic flint working site or settlement was encountered. This was largely identified by a concentration of flint debitage (total 57 lithics) covering an area of c. 20m diameter, at the top of a steep scarp to the E.

J Terry 1990.

The presence of a flint-working site at Beckton Farm was first indicated by the recovery of lithics during fieldwalking by W F Cormack and confirmed by assessment work carried out by GUARD (then APG) in 1990 in advance of motorway construction. Several narrow trenches were then cut across the top of the ridge to reveal evidence of Neolithic settlement or ritual occupation.

Geophysical survey, test pitting and excavation were carried out by GUARD between April and June 1992. Geophysical survey indicated that (as was subsequently confirmed by excavation) features outside the protective hollow formed by the ridge had been destroyed by ploughing. The test-pitting produced relatively few finds, 53 pieces of flint or chert being found to add to the 33 found by Cormack and about 20 found in the assessment phase. Over half of the lithics found in this phase were recovered by hand without the need for sieving.

Features identified during the assessment phase included spreads of grey silty clay (014, 106 and 136) which both filled and sealed underlying features. The presence of charcoal and lithics in this deposit suggested an identification as the floor-deposit of one or more upstanding structures while features found within it included a small hearth.

Two areas of 30 by 25m and 30 by 5m respectively were opened by machine to reveal an irregularly-mixed fluvio-glacial subsoil in which archaeological features could be discerned only with difficulty. Three classes of feature were identified:

a. clay spreads representing occupation-surfaces, hut-floors or pit-fills. Such features were frequently found to mask evidence of earlier activity,

b. small and clearly-defined post- and stake-holes, and pits with dark loamy fills, and

c. ambiguous or natural soil features, including patches of gravel or grit.

The excavated features have been divided into three groups which may represent phases defined by horizontal stratigraphy. The earliest features apparently represent an area of domestic occupation possibly related to agriculture. Structural evidence for several houses was recognised although at least two structures (111 and 136) were apparently smaller.

These structures may be contemporary with other features, including a clay-lined fire-pit which may represent an oven or kiln.

The clearest evidence for such a structure was found at the S end of the trench where a shallow and sub-circular foundation-trench (111) was found to enclose an area measuring about 3.5m in diameter into which there were set several post- and stake-holes. What was apparently an entrance-gap was apparent in the SE, and the structure was covered by a deposit of heavily-trampled grey clay.

Excavation beneath clay spread 097 (in the NE of the trench) revealed a fire-pit which comprised a square clay trough with a possible flue of upstanding stones. The discovery of a substantial charcoal deposit (at the E extremity of pit 197) and of a probable broken saddle quern suggests that this feature represents a clay-drying oven or kiln.

There were also identified various pits, some of which (022 and 090) may have held fires, while two large pits (112 and 168) produced no finds but had been backfilled with heavy clay which was possibly imported to the site for that purpose.

This backfilling may mark a major change in the role of the site, moving from domestic to ritual in emphasis. As well as the backfilled pits, other features, including the clay-lined fire-pit, were also sealed beneath spreads of clay, while at least one of the probable domestic structures apparently fell into disuse. Among the features identified were a series of post-holes which were identified as representing two structures of four-post form, that to the S being represented by post-holes 058 and 128-30, and that to the N by post-holes 026, 082-3 and 133. These were the largest post-holes found, measuring about 0.4m in diameter and 0.45m in depth, and containing packing-stones which in each case suggested a diameter of about 150mm for the original post. No evidence was found for wall-slots or stake-holes linking these post-holes, suggesting that they do not represent buildings, while the limited stratigraphic evidence suggests that they were built late in the use of the site, possibly for ritual use as excarnation or cremation platforms.

Fire-pit 090 measured about 0.8m in diameter and 0.25m in depth, and contained flat stones and pieces of charcoal, while several of the small pits contained pottery and stone tools. Feature 151 was found on the crest of the ridge and has no discernible structural function; a ritual interpretation has been suggested on the basis of the discovery within it of charcoal, burnt hazelnuts, pottery, lithics and hammerstones.

Further evidence for ritual activity at this time includes the deposition of Grooved Ware pottery in small pits, one of which (080) is close to one of the four-post structures. Another of these pits (159) is situated near the terminus of a shallow curving ditch for which there is no obvious domestic purpose. An alternative explanation suggests that there was no comprehensive transformation of purpose, the remainder of the site continuing in domestic use around these ritual elements, which are not securely dated to the Neolithic but may be of Iron Age date.

Few finds were recovered, possibly as a result of ploughing or reflecting the general paucity of finds on Scottish Neolithic sites. No more than around forty pieces of flint and chert and thirty finds or groups of finds of pottery were found in excavation. Other than the Grooved Ware, all the pottery is coarse and heavily-gritted, while bone survived only when burnt.

NMRS, MS/725/26.

Flint working site and Grooved Ware noted.

RCAHMS 1997.