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Huntsman's Quarry, Kemerton Archaeological investigations ...

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Based upon an extensive programme of radiocarbon dating, it is suggestedthat some of the waterholes and elements of the field systems were laid outduring the 12th century BC, areas of settlement being subsequentlyestablished within this “bounded” landscape. These settlement areas appearto have been unenclosed. Dating of charred residues from the substantialplainware assemblage indicates that occupation was focussed in the 11thcentury BC, perhaps spanning as little as four or five generations. It is arguedthat rather than all areas having been contemporaneously occupied, individualareas provided a short-lived focus within a regularly shifting settlement. It issuggested that perhaps this occurred on a generational basis, with eachgeneration setting up a new ‘homestead’ with an associated waterhole.Possibly at the same time, the settlement of the previous generation wasformally abandoned, a process marked by the closure of the waterholes.Slight variations in the composition of the ceramic assemblages across thesite provide some support for this interpretive model.Cropmark evidence and limited other <strong>investigations</strong>, for example at Aston Mill(see Dinn's 1990 report for Worcestershire's <strong>Archaeological</strong> TransactionsJournal) indciate that the fields and droveways represent a small fragment ofa widespread system of boundaries established across the gravel terraceslying between Bredon Hill and the Carrant Brook. This managed and organisedlandscape appears to have been established for the maintenance of aneconomy primarily based on livestock farming; the trackways perhapsfacilitating seasonal movement of stock between meadows alongside theCarrant Brook, on adjacent terraces and on the higher land on Bredon Hill.

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