FOUR NEOLITHIC HOUSES UNEARTHED AT QUARRY

Reconstruction of a Neolithic house. Image: CEMEX/Wessex Archaeology

Four early Neolithic houses (3700 BC) have been unearthed by archaeologists at CEMEX’s Kingsmead Quarry in Berkshire.  The discovery is unprecedented on a single site in England and challenges our current understanding of how people lived more than 5,700 years ago.

This rare find will give us a unique opportunity to learn more about the earliest permanent settlements in prehistoric Britain and how such sites developed. At this time new practices were being adopted with people switching lifestyle from hunter-gather to settled farmer.

A rare find

Few houses of this date have been found in England and rarely has more than one been found on a single site. These discoveries by excavators from Wessex Archaeology are key to enhancing the knowledge and understanding of this period nationally and at a local level tell us more about the history of the area around the Rivers Colne and Thames near Windsor.

Read the rest of this article...