Bronze Age cremation, and multi-period features at Cooks Green Farm (EHER 80435)

Geophysical survey identified only a small cluster of five discrete anomalies of likely archaeological origin. A phase of evaluation then identified 18 features comprising of 16 ditches and two pits, one of which is likely to be a Bronze Age cremation. The other pit was post-medieval but the ditches are largely undated.

September 2019. Geophysical survey. The survey results are dominated by well-defined magnetic responses which are thought not to be archaeological, but instead 'periglacial phenomena'. These features are most present in the Southern sections of the site and have the potential to mask genuine magnetic responses from surviving archaeological remains. It is not clear why these geomorphological responses are concentrated along the Southern margins of the surveyed area, although this may relate to the Southerly extent of sand and gravel deposits at the site. Only a small cluster of five discrete anomalies of likely archaeological origin were identified, focussed in the centre East of the surveyed area. However, other surviving archaeological features may be obscured. <1> November 2021. Trial trenching. The evaluation was split into two Areas: Area 1 the field to the West and Area 2 the field to the East, where the previous geophysical survey had identified a cluster of pits. In Area 1, 16 trenches contained 20 archaeological features. These were all ditches or linears, with the exception of two pits. In several cases the ditch slots in different trenches appeared to match, indicating continuation of those features. Four groups of ditches appeared to conform to this pattern, and two further groups of ditches had differing characteristics but were also on continuous alignments. The excavated area contained a minimum of 12 ditches, although the majority of the latter were undated. They probably represent field boundaries, although there wasn’t enough evidence to discern any patterns or enclosure systems. Area 1 also contained two pits, one of which yielded 10g of burnt human bone and oak charcoal fragments and was probably the remains of a cremation burial in a cloth bag, or the result of clearance from a cremation burial. It was undated and could belong anywhere between the prehistoric and Early-Saxon periods. However, two or three Bronze Age cremation burials were recorded in investigation further to the West, and four sherds of Bronze Age pottery came from this site, so it is likely the cremation is also Bronze Age. The second pit contained the most finds of any feature: nine sherds of later post-medieval pottery and 13.720kg of CBM, and is probably 18th century. In Area 2, Trenches 1 and 2 contained four archaeological features, and these were all ditches or linears. A single E-W aligned ditch was present in Trench 1. In Trench 2, all three ditches had the same N-S alignment. None of these ditches contained any finds so remain undated. The only correlations between the excavated evidence and the cropmark and geophysical surveys was a linear E-W aligned crop mark in Area 1 that corresponded with two excavated ditch sondages; in Area 2, an E-W aligned cropmark corresponded with a ditch in Trench 1, and two N-S aligned cropmarks corresponded with ditches in Trench 2. There was very slight evidence that four or five ditches may have had prehistoric origins; four Bronze Age sherds and a small amount of burnt flint were also recovered but these were probably all residual. <2> For cropmark evidence, see EHER 16989.