The Stratigraphy of the Mesolithic Sites III and V at Thatcham, Berkshire, England

Abstract

Since 1922, when Peake and Crawford, first described a flint factory from Thatcham in Berkshire, the area has become increasingly important for comparative studies of the British Mesolithic, and more specifically the Thames Valley, Clark 1932, 1936, Rankine 1956.At Thatcham, a number of Mesolithic camping sites occur along the edge of a gravel terrace which borders a reed swamp at the junction of the Moor Brook and the Kennet river. The valley of the Kennet joins the Thames at Reading nearly fifteen miles downstream. The early excavations of Peake and Crawford and the more recent ones of Wymer (1959), were confined to the occupation site on the terrace. However from these scattered terrace hearths it was not possible to estimate the commencement of the occupation, its duration or cultural development. With the prospect of recovering a stratified sequence of artefacts, a coffer dam was therefore sunk into the swamp sediments at the foot of the terrace bluff. Inside the dam it was then possible to excavate (pl. XLIX) below the water level of the swamp (Site V).A stratified sequence of artefacts, animal and plant remains was found, and sufficient fossil pollen and wood were preserved to enable pollen zonation and radiocarbon dating of the profile. It was apparent from the C14 dates that the algal marl accumulated for a period of the order of 500 to 1000 years.