SDO15221 - Archaeological Observations at Chetnole

‘ST 604 081. Miss Sybil Howard of Chetnole reported the discovery of an archaeological feature during the excavation by Southern Electric of a cable trench in the village. I visited the site on the same day, 27 February 1996. The feature was located at the grid reference above, in a section of the trench that ran roughly north-south. It was 1.9m wide with a rounded profile. The trench was 1.1m deep at this point and the feature was (probably on slightly) deeper than the trench. The subsoil was a buff sandy silt, which had been burnt to a red colour at the feature’s cut. The upper fill of the feature was 0.9m deep and consisted largely of redeposited subsoil and topsoil. The lower fill (>0.2m deep) consisted of c. 80% coal in a matrix that was similar to the upper fill. A few small fragments of unidentifiable bone were mixed with the coal in the spoil heap. The feature can be interpreted as a fire pit of some form. The scorching of the subsoil indicates that a fire was made in the open pit. The coal was presumably the fuel. After the fire, the pit seems to have been deliberately backfilled. The limited quantity of bone probably precludes the pit having been dug to dispose of an animal carcass. The use of coal indicates a relatively recent date for the feature.’