Director Christine Shaw
Other major archaeological features are pits and working hollows. For example, alongside most of the houses, there is a shallow circular working hollow either empty or full of clay, soil and straw. These hollows are the natural by-product of making the daub mixture which is plastered onto the house walls. Other hollows may have been the bases of Iron Age clamp kilns. The heat from the firing caused a certain amount of fracturing in the rock under the kiln, and as the kiln was scraped out after firing, the hole got gradually deeper. When it eventually reached about 0.5 metres in depth, the kiln would have to be relocated.
More important pits, cylindrical or flask-shaped and up to 2 metres in depth, are thought to have been underground grain storage units. Research carried out at the Ancient Farm for over twenty years has shown that seed and food grain can be perfectly stored in such pits.
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Created 18 January 2002 - Updated 18 January 2002