This modestly sized monograph heralds a seemingly ambitious new series devoted to ‘Studies in the British Mesolithic and Neolithic’, which, according to the blurb at the back and on the publisher’s website, ‘takes its inspiration from the work of the University of Buckingham’s excavations at Blick Mead in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site’. These excavations have been much in the news in the last few years (thanks to the energetic campaigning of their director), and have featured, for example, in a BBC Horizon programme in 2017 and been voted Current Archaeology Research Project of the Year for 2018. Initial publication of the findings can be found in the proceedings of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine (vol 107, 2014). The current monograph is ‘an interim statement on the findings up to 2015 so far, focusing on archaeological research up to 2013, but referencing more recent findings, analyses of which are still ongoing’. This is a rather unusual strategy, as monographs tend to come at the conclusion of projects – as exemplified by the almost simultaneous publication of recent work at that icon of the British Mesolithic, Star Carr (Milner et al Reference Milner, Conneller and Taylor2018).
Why has Blick Mead grabbed so much attention? Firstly, it is close to Stonehenge (2.7km away), and secondly it is a Mesolithic site where, among other things, some animal bone – notably aurochs – has been preserved. The tenuous link between these factors, together with a froth of speculation aroused, for example, by the local occurrence of bizarrely coloured flint, a hunting dog ‘from the north’, and a possible Mesolithic slate point perhaps ‘from northern or western Britain’, have combined to stoke up a smokescreen of the sort of excitable hyperbole that erupts from both journalists and some archaeologists whenever Stonehenge is mentioned. Thus pumped-up, it has added fuel to the lively fray provoked by the proposed upgrade of the adjacent A303. A more creditable factor (of which much has also been made) is that the project, run on a shoestring, has galvanised the support of an enthusiastic and committed following among the local community, and a small museum has been established in Amesbury as a result. This aspect is well expressed in the monograph by quotes from volunteers and an afterword. The meat of the book, though, puts the hype aside and sets out in great detail all the actual evidence so far available, provided by a wide range of excellent specialist reports topped and tailed by introductory and discussion chapters, with appendices.
What, then, is actually behind that smokescreen? The excavations have sampled the immediate environs of a former spring, still waterlogged at times. Within this feature three small trenches have between them recovered substantial quantities of flint (over 30,000 pieces) as well as 271 fragments of poorly preserved identifiable large mammal bone, of which over half are of aurochs and five of which have cutmarks. Most of this material comes from a single 20cm layer of ‘viscous dark brown silty clay’, probably a mix of alluvial and colluvial sediment, and is densely concentrated in places. Twelve radiocarbon dates on bone from this or analogous deposits range across a spectrum of the mid–late Mesolithic from c 7600 to 4700 cal bc. There are overlying deposits of various origins that include a late Neolithic arrowhead as well as other prehistoric, medieval and modern material. The focus is on the Mesolithic with very detailed and thorough reports on the lithics and large mammal fauna, also on the geotechnical studies, isotope measurements, small mammals, algae, etc. What is clear, but is perhaps not spelled out enough in the accompanying discussion, is that the Mesolithic deposit is a chronologically mixed accumulation. However, instead of this being an inconvenience, the very wide spread of radiocarbon dates is promoted as ‘the longest Mesolithic sequence of dates in Britain’, an apparent virtue that leads to the deployment of that useful cover-all whereby such sites must have been a ‘persistent place’ returned to repeatedly over long periods as ‘a culturally determined and desired locale’ (page 169). It is the overlap of some of these dates with Stonehenge that has unleashed the sort of feverish speculation already referred to.
The specialist chapters steer admirably clear of this. Most space is devoted to the lithic assemblages, but here again it is clear that the typo-chronology is mixed. One eye-catching component among this is the presence of at least one flint, ‘Horsham Point’, most of the analogues for which occur further to the south and east in England, but also in the Somme valley for example, a potential connection that is overlooked. Instead, much space is wasted on a dodgy fragment of slate, illustrated no less than three times, and ‘most likely to come from parts of northern or western Britain’ (page 122) which – it is tentatively surmised – might also be a Horsham Point. That it might be intrusive is not even considered, nor thought given as to why such points would have been imported or made of intractable slate when better quality flint was locally abundant. A note of caution must also be inserted about the apparent significance of the weird pink flint. This colouration is an effect of an algal encrustation on unworked flints found in the waters of a nearby spring-fed pool that turn pink when dried, an effect that reverts after a limited period, and such flints have not been encountered in the archaeological deposits. While this is a remarkable phenomenon that may indeed have lent special importance to the area in prehistory, how will we ever know? Other reports, one after another, do little to flesh out more than quite banal expectations (for example, flint axes were used to work wood; aurochs and flint were local; the immediate environment was watery; geophysical survey was inconclusive). Organic preservation was poor and there was no Mesolithic pollen record, nor any recognisable artefacts of bone, antler or wood. Structural evidence is absent (tree-throws and other features nearby, in the higher level Trench 24, may hint at this, but discussion and description of results from this trench is still ‘interim’). An unresolved curiosity – despite the absence of hearths – is the presence of substantial quantities of non-artefactual burnt flint, perhaps an indication of cooking/feasting. The presence of pine marten is of interest, though; but, like the well-travelled dog, is represented by just one tooth.
Much is therefore left, understandably, to speculation and this is mostly kept in check until the final chapter. Here, for example, it is wondered if the pits in the Stonehenge car park and elsewhere might have held posts intended to mark and predict auroch movements over sacred hunting grounds; and, unable to resist trying to invoke ‘new insights’ into Stonehenge itself, there is an excursion into concepts of animism and totemism, and continuity through the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition and beyond. After all the dry detail preceding it, this is certainly the most entertaining part of the book.
The Mesolithic perspective that Blick Mead adds to recent revelations emerging from the World Heritage site is very welcome and, though very challenging to excavate and interpret, the site is undoubtedly of significance. The prompt and thorough publication is applauded – even if it is unclear why an interim statement in this form was necessary when the 2014 journal article has already served this purpose well enough (and from which large parts of the monograph’s discussion have been lifted verbatim). There are several signs that the book was put together hurriedly – including careless repetition, irritating misspelling of peoples’ names, citations omitted from the bibliography and a main text padded out with indigestible methodological statements and oversized illustrations.
What next though? Apart from mention of some DNA analysis, there is no sense of the direction the project might now take. One certainly hopes that it can go from strength to strength and continue to report its findings just as diligently in future volumes of this new series.
