A Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age Ring Ditch, Middle Bronze Age Pits and an Early Iron Age Settlement at Shinfield

Excavations to the south-west of Shinfield revealed a palimpsest of activity that spanned the prehistoric to the late post-medieval period. Residual Mesolithic worked flint was found in two main concentrations, with further material widely distributed across the site. A ring ditch of a barrow constructed in the last centuries of the second millennium BC was found. This may have been built around a standing tree, and a significant amount of charred oak wood had been placed on the base of the ditch. Several centuries later, a Collared Urn cremation burial was placed in the centre of the ring ditch, as well as another cremation burial in a pit outside the barrow. Two isolated Middle Bronze Age pits were discovered elsewhere on the site, one containing a very small amount of burnt bone. A dispersed Early Iron Age settlement comprising six four-post structures, two intercutting pit groups and at least one larger isolated pit was also found. An unusual find from an Early Iron Age pit was a pottery sherd impressed with an animal paw print, possibly from a cat. Ditches belonging to at least four separate field systems were excavated. Dating evidence for these was meagre, although Roman field systems are known nearby. A 17th- to 18th-century barn/outbuilding and a 19th-century structure were also discovered.