Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age ditches, Horndon to Barking Gas Pipeline (Site 4) (EHER 16873)

Deposits and features dating to the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age were recorded during a watching brief on the construction of a 19km long natural gas pipeline.

1993. Watching brief. Deposits and features dating to the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age were recorded during a watching brief on the construction of a 19km long natural gas pipeline. Extending from the Mardyke for approximately 460m to the east a 0.4m thick layer of grey silty clay directly overlay the natural clay. Large quantities of burnt and worked flint and a single bodysherd of Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age flint-gritted pottery were found in this deposit. This was cut by three intercutting ditches; burnt and worked flint was recovered from the fills of all three ditches. Two of them also produced pottery of Middle to Late Bronze Age date including an almost complete cordon decorated urn or jar. To the west of Mardyke extending for 130m was a layer of grey silty clay from which burnt flint and a single flint waste flake was recovered. this was overlain by a sequence of two yellowish brown silty-clay (?alluvial) deposits with a thin layer of peat; these did not contain any finds. The three intercutting ditches are of LBA/EIA date or later, possibly representing a field boundary or drainage ditch, re-cut at least twice due to silting. The alluvial deposits which pre-date the three ditches probably represent episodes of flooding of the Mardyke. <1> See also <2> <3>.