EDO179 - Everley Water Meadow, Iwerne Stepleton; excavations 1982-83

In consultation with Dr Martin Bell (University College, Lampeter) and Bob Smith (Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments, London) a research design was developed that suggested sampling of a series of valley bottom deposits around the hill where colluvial and alluvial accumulations might have led to the accrual and preservation of palaeoenvironmental sequences that would comprise an essential adjunct to the interpretation of the main site. In order to maximise the opportunities to be gained from the exercise a site was chosen in Everley Water Meadow where extensive field survey conducted during the Hambledon Hill project had indicated an extensive scatter of calcined flint suggestive of prehistoric occupation. Excavation in 1982 and 1983 revealed traces of a Late Bronze Age occupation site set beside a series of extinct stream gulleys set at the very edge of the flood plain of the River Iwerne, which provided just the secluded circumstance where suitable diachronic deposits of palaeoenvironmental data might be preserved.