Neolithic House Project Week 1
As we launch into our Stone Age project it's been a pleasure welcoming some of the team from Wessex Archaeology to join us in our Stone Age build this week.
This is a really special partnership as Wessex were the team who originally excavated the house, and know the archaeology intimately. We've been working closely together in the planning, design and, now construction, of the new house.
Our new Stone Age construction is based on an archaeological footprint from the Kingsmead Quarry at Horton, Berkshire which boasts evidence of some of the finest Early Neolithic Buildings in the country. Wessex Archaeology have been excavating at the Kingsmead site for CEMEX UK since 2003, exposing over 12,000 years of human history in the process, but it is the wealth of Neolithic archaeology that made it exceptional.
This first drew our attention when looking for evidence to base our build on. Over two dozen Early Neolithic houses c. 3800-3600BC are now known in Britain, ranging in length from a modest 6m to over 20m, but they are still rare. Usually only recognisable by post holes in the ground, they are hard to spot and it is often only at excavations where large areas are stripped, such as at Horton, that they can be found. Exceptionally at Horton at least 4 Neolithic Houses have been found!
Wessex Archaeology had not only thoroughly excavated and documented these findings but also created some brilliant computer generated reconstructions showing possible interpretations of the structures. Although our house will differ slightly in it’s interpretation and construction, having these initial designs was a great springboard to discussions and debates about form and design and how the archaeology could be interpreted.
Wessex Archaeology's interpretation of one of the Horton Houses by Karen Nichols
Our archaeologist Claire Walton will be sharing more of the technical aspects of our design and construction in our next blog, along with an update on our progress and initial observations on the process. We’ve been really pleased with the rate of construction and effectiveness of the Stone Age tools and construction techniques so far but Claire will reveal more next time!
For now we will leave you with the below photos and timelapse from our first week of construction. It was a lovely moment to have the very same team members, who have spent many a day excavating this Neolithic building, helping us to give it a new life here at Butser. For many of them, although being specialists in in analysing and understanding artefacts such as flint, this was their first time actually using a flint tool. It was a brilliant opportunity for them to gain first hand experience of using these ancient materials, plus hacking away at the timber with flint axes and bone chisels was just what some of us needed and very therapeutic on some of the darker, colder days this week!
Many thanks to the Wessex team for all their input and support so far!
For more details of the Horton House check out this Current Archaeology article and Wessex Archaeology’s discussion of the Kingsmead Quarry excavations here.
