Rotherwas Ribbon: latest news

Rotherwas Ribbon Update, February 2010

Since discovery in 2007

The last bulletin issued by the Council's archaeology service was posted in September 2007. It noted that the Council had plans to further the investigation of the late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age linear paved surface and its associated features through a range of measures and studies. These have developed as follows in the past two years:

• More detailed studies of the pottery, flint and samples retrieved during the excavation in 2007 have been carried out. These included studies that indicate both the very unusual nature of the worked flint assemblage, but also that it has been subjected to burning at high temperatures.
• The records of the surface itself made in 2007 have been studied carefully to try to understand better how the structure itself had developed. This has led to the creation of a photographic composite of the surface, and clarification of the relative extent of upper and lower surfaces.
• A follow-up assessment has been carried out of the implications of the prehistoric discoveries along the access road and nearby for the below-ground archaeology of the development zone at the Rotherwas Industrial Estate.
• This latter has also been informed by the progress and results of an archaeological field project undertaken in advance of the infrastructure works for the south magazines area, very close to the Ribbon discoveries. This work has produced evidence for activity including the creation and use of an enclosure covering a massive area and defined by a small bank and ditch, and the creation of spreads of burnt stone associated with pits and troughs, during a period from 3000 BC to 1000 BC.

Survey in November and December 2009

A geophysical survey was carried out with the kind permission of the landowner and with funding from English Heritage. This covered land both north and south of the new access road, and included areas through which the projected line of the Ribbon runs. The results of the survey can be summarised as follows:

• North of the road a series of high magnetic readings indicated the presence of areas of burning in a line running northwards exactly from the location of the ribbon as recorded in 2007, right through to Watery Lane.
• South of the road a similar series of readings plotted the course of burning in a line running northwards exactly from the location of the Ribbon as recorded in 2007, almost through to the track running along the base of the scarp slope of Dinedor Hill.
• Areas of high electrical resistance followed the course of the magnetic anomalies reasonably closely to the south of the road, but a change in underlying geology made this less easy to trace north of the road.
• All these areas contrasted markedly with areas eastwards of the overall north-south line, and it seems likely that they broadly represent the course of the "Ribbon". If this is so (and the 2010 excavations are designed in part to test this apparent correlation), then the Ribbon feature extends over at least 400 metres down the hill.

Excavations in February and March 2010

Again, due to the kind permission of the landowner and with funding from English Heritage, a limited programme of further field archaeological excavation of the feature discovered and exposed in 2007 will be carried out over a five and a half week period, ending in mid-March. This will have the following features:

• Two trenches, each 30 metres long, will be excavated to the south of the road in early February. The features encountered will be exposed and sample-excavated, and detailed samples will be taken for further scientific analysis.
• Three trenches, each 30 metres long, will then be excavated in late February and early March, to the north of the road.
• The aims of the project are to locate and further characterise primarily the Neolithic and Bronze Age features examined in 2007, and to answer specific questions about the extent and nature of the laid surfaces of burnt stone, their date and their cultural associations.
• A battery of scientific techniques will be used to help the archaeologists to better understand these characteristics.  These techniques will include methods rarely before deployed in Herefordshire, such as optically stimulated luminescence dating ("OSL", to be carried out by Oxford University staff), but will also involve examination of any bone or plant remains, and further close scientific study of retrieved artefacts such as worked flints (potentially including use-wear studies).

It may not be practicable (or indeed safe) to organise viewing by the public of the narrow excavation trenches during the course of the work. However, to keep up with the progress of work, consult this website, where update bulletins will be available.