Hut site in Raffin

Situated on the summit of a N-S ridge. When first described in 1969 (SMR file) the earthwork presented as a large ring-barrow consisting of a circular grass-covered area (diam. 38.5m NW-SE) separated by a fosse (Wth of top 6.5m-7.5m; Wth of base 2-2.5m; int. D 0.6-0.7m; ext. D 0.8-0.9m) from an outer earthen bank (Wth of base 3-5.8m; ext. H 0.5m at NW to 1.2m at SE). The earthwork was damaged in 1988 and a subsequent excavation (E000510) in the years 1989-1993 revealed a complex of features including a possible Neolithic house, two hut-sites, two enclosures, two timber circles, and a ritual burial. The circular hut-site of the Late Bronze Age (ME011-040005-) was superseded by an Early Iron Age circular hut-site (diam. 9m) defined by a plank palisade with an entrance at SE. It is at the centre of the earthwork enclosure (ME011-040----) and may be contemporary with it. A sample of wood from the palisade trench produced a C14 date of 30 BC to AD 670, corroborated by a La Téne fibula of second century AD date and two glass-beads. It had no evidence of a hearth or other signs of domestic use, but it was within a widely-spaced timber circle (ME011-040006-) of a ritual nature. The hut-site was partly beneath the NNW-SSE surface scarp across the earthwork, which is dated by radiocarbon to the early medieval. (Newman 1993b; 1993c, 14-16; 1993d, 23) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 10 April, 2010