Possible unenclosed Late Bronze Age settlement, Heybridge Basin Marina (EHER 8016)

A possible unenclosed Late Bronze Age settlement was recorded during a salvage excavation in 1985. The archaeological remains comprised pits, a gully, sub-circular features, two walls, two possible wells, two ditches and one oval feature.

Autumn 1985. Salvage excavation. The gravel was capped by a clay layer which seemed to seal Late Bronze Age features and might reflect a post-Bronze Age marine transgression. Many features cut into the gravel surface were recorded, but only 17 could be dated. Fourteen were Late Bronze Age, including pits, a gully, sub-circular features, two walls, two possible wells, two ditches and one oval feature. Finds included: pottery, flint, fired clay (incl. a perforated clay slab, a clay weight and some objects possibly from 'oven' superstructures), burnt flint, bone, quern fragments, wood (incl. the sharpened tip of an oak stake). A number of undated features seemed to delimit a 7-8m diameter circular structure with a possible porch. The size and arrangement is comparable to known Late Bronze Age structures in Essex and elsewhere, though the features are rather large for the post holes of such a structure. The north-west facing porch is unusual but may reflect local topography. One, unurned cremation burial lay 5m 'behind' the supposed structure. Most of the pottery is likely to date to 10th-8th centuries BC. The site seems to represent an unenclosed settlement. There is considerable evidence for Late Bronze Age settlement in the surrounding area, around the head of the Blackwater estuary. The ditches may represent a system of east-west land divisions and another ditch could be part of this system too. If these linear features are Late Bronze Age, they are of interest as there are a number of cropmark field systems and trackways known in the area. Where examined, they have been shown to be post-Bronze Age in date, and an environment of open pasture has been suggested for the Late Bronze Age. <1> - <4> See aerial photograph and cropmark plot <5> <6>. Site Assessment = Possibly an unenclosed settlement. There is much evidence for Late Bronze Age settlement in this area, around head of Blackwater estuary. Possibility that field system could be of this period is interesting, as where investigated hitherto elsewhere they have been shown to be post-Bronze Age. <1> NRHE data transfer: Salvage recording on an area of about 4.3ha, prior to the excavation of a training lake for the Blackwater Sailing Club, produced shallow scoop-shaped features characteristic of prehistoric sites on the north side of the Blackwater, which contained worked flint. At least three triangular structures were recorded on a gravel peninsula. Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pottery came from many of the 27 wells/deep pits. A linear ditch also produced Bronze Age pottery. Other finds from the site include perforated clay slabs, bell and triangular shaped loomweights (unpierced) and a large quantity of animal bones. A hearth like feature produced two possible Roman sherds. <4>