SDO152 - Field Survey of the Ancient Fields and Enclosures at Black Hill, Cerne Abbas, Dorset

The two enclosures and associated ancient field earthworks were examined and assessed by excavation and survey in December 1981 and January 1982. This report describes additional fieldwork in the late autumn of 1983 when parts of the western hilltop were ploughed for the first time. All three fields on the hilltop were subjected to systematic fieldwalking after ploughing. Detailed artefact distributions, soil-marks and earthworks plotted on a 50m grid. Soil samples at 10 metre intervals were collected in three traverses across the settlement zones defined by the earthworks; these were tested for phosphate. This survey identified previously unrecorded elements of the field system, and further defined their structure. The artefact distributions have enabled some definition of functional zones. The data also allows for a settlement sequence to be described, although this needs to be tested by excavation. The survey demonstrates that flint was extracted and worked on the hilltop from the early prehistoric period (Late Neolithic) onwards, and notably in the north-eastern area; pick fragments, hammerstones, and core-waste. Tools, predominantly flint scrapers, concentrated in the southern and western areas, as does the early pottery (Middle Bronze Age to Early Iron Age). This early pottery has its densest concentration on the eastern edge of the site, and is bounded by the concentration of core-waste and hammerstones to the north-west, the eastern earthwork enclosure to the west, and a broad concentration of flint scrapers to the south. This Bronze Age 'settlement focus' occurs in an area undefined by soil-marks and earthworks, but which probably lies in an area that was subjected to ploughing in the 18th/19th century (distribution of post-medieval pottery, manuring). The occurrence of Late Iron Age and Romano-British pottery and tile across the area indicates systematic use of the hilltop in this period, although the pattern of earthworks as such probably originates in the Bronze Age. However three distinct, separate, and successive field arrangements can be recognised. This basic site depiction gives a basis by which similar hilltop enclosures and associated field systems in the locality can be more adequately compared. These are catalogued in an appendix and include the excavated Bronze Age settlements at Shearplace Hill, and Hog Cliff Hill. Many of these are now subjected to annual ploughing. This survey also provides graphic evidence of the progressive loss of archaeological data as a result of ploughing.