Prehistoric Occupation and Burial on the Wold-Edge: Excavations at Melton Quarry, North Ferriby, East Riding

Abstract

Archaeological excavations ahead of the enlargement of Melton Quarry, in 2003, 2012 and 2015, have provided a regionally significant dataset which will aid better understandings of prehistoric occupation and burial on the south-eastern Yorkshire Wolds. Bayesian radiocarbon modelling has identified three main phases of occupation on the site, during the middle Neolithic and Beaker periods and the later Bronze Age. The character, dates and settings of the features share similarities with examples identified in the central and northern Wolds, which were investigated by antiquarians, and in the mid-twentieth century. In addition to providing comparative evidence for these better-known (but less well-understood) sites, Melton Quarry has provided an important suite of radiocarbon dates, scientific analysis of burials and evidence for prehistoric occupation and agricultural practice. A large Romano-British ditch also crossed the site, its upper fills containing a tenth- or eleventh-century AD inhumation.

Keywords:

• Neolithic
• Beaker
• Bronze Age
• Wolds
• radiocarbon
• barrow
• occupation

Acknowledgements

OA North would like to thank OMYA for commissioning the work. On behalf of CgMs Consulting, Paul Gajos managed the fieldwork project, and Paul Clark the post-excavation programme. Thanks go to David Evans and Ruth Atkinson, then of the Humber Archaeological Partnership, for monitoring the project, and to Lucie McCarthy for approving the post-excavation elements. Thanks also go to David Marchant for providing access to East Riding Museums archives, where archive material from the Q1 site had been deposited. John Carrott (Palaeoenvironmental Research Services) provided the palaeoenvironmental archive material from the Q1 site. The YAT (Q1) fieldwork was undertaken by Bryan Antoni, Matt Beresford, Karen Bolchover, Tansy Collins, Dan McConnell, Becca Pullen, Nigel Steel, Julian Thorley and Katie Tucker. The OA North (Q2) fieldwork was undertaken by Alex Batey, Jim O'Brien and Jenny Ryder, supervised by Paul Dunn and Andrew Frudd.

Authors’ contribution

Specialist analysis was undertaken by Antony Dickson (lithics), Denise Druce (charred plant remains and charcoal), Lauren McIntyre (osteology), Adam Tinsley (prehistoric pottery). Mandy Jay, Janet Montgomery, Geoff Nowell and Darren Gröcke (University of Durham) undertook the isotope analysis, and Kayla Crowder processed the samples; the collagen data were produced by the Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory (SIBL). Tom Booth and Amin Garbout (University of Bristol) undertook the histological analysis. Adam Parsons prepared the illustrations for the report, which was edited by Rachel Newman and Fraser Brown, who also managed the project for OA North.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Helen Evans

Helen Evans has a PhD in Cumbrian prehistory from the University of Sheffield and is a Project Officer at OA North. She is archaeology editor of the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. Her research interests include the prehistoric landscapes and vernacular buildings of Cumbria.

Helen Evans has a PhD in Cumbrian prehistory from the University of Sheffield and is a Project Officer at OA North. She is archaeology editor of the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. Her research interests include the prehistoric landscapes and vernacular buildings of Cumbria.

Tom Booth

Tom Booth has a PhD from the University of Sheffield, investigating relationships between funerary taphonomy and bacterial attack in archaeological bones. He has continued investigating bone degradation and funerary rites while working on ancient DNA projects at the Natural History Museum and the Francis Crick Institute.

Antony Dickson

Antony Dickson is OA North’s lithic specialist, having graduated from the University of Sheffield, and has analysed stone-tool assemblages dating from the Late Upper Palaeolithic through to later prehistory, including several from East Yorkshire. His research interests include the Mesolithic and Neolithic lithic technology of north-west England.

Denise Druce

Denise Druce has a PhD in Environment and Archaeology from Bristol University. She is OA North’s archaeobotanical specialist, with skills including palynology, charred and waterlogged plant analysis, and wood and charcoal analysis.

Lauren McIntyre

Lauren McIntyre is an osteoarchaeologist in OA South’s Heritage Burial Services team and is a member of the British Association for Biological Anthropology (BABAO) Trading and Sale of Human Remains Sub-group. Her research interests include palaeodemography, on which she attained a PhD, and the osteological study of mass mortality assemblages.

Mandy Jay

Mandy Jay is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Archaeology Department at Durham University and works as a consultant in the field of isotopic analysis of archaeological skeletal material. She has worked on a wide variety of isotope studies, her main interest being in later prehistoric Britain.

Adam Tinsley

Adam Tinsley has a PhD from the University of Sheffield and is a Senior Project Manager at OA North, specialising in the analysis of prehistoric ceramics. He has worked on numerous prehistoric ceramic assemblages ranging from the Early Neolithic period to the Iron Age.