An exceptionally well-preserved Bronze Age spearhead has been unearthed in South Cerney, Gloucestershire, during fieldwork led by Cotswold Archaeology ahead of the construction of a new wildlife habitat at a Thames Water sewage works.
The c.3,000-year-old spearhead was discovered just below surface-level in a shallow pit encircled by stakeholes which – although impossible to verify their purpose – may have possibly formed an above-ground structure marking the location of the pit.
The spearhead is one of numerous other finds spanning the prehistoric to Roman periods unearthed during the excavation, which include six Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age timber-posted roundhouses, two Roman trackways, and an array of animal bone and pottery fragments.
Previous excavations in the wider area (completed by Oxford Archaeology) have revealed traces of extensive Bronze Age settlement, in the form of timber-posted structures, and the remains of a Romano-British farmstead.
There are plans for the artefacts, currently undergoing analysis, to go on public display at Cirencester’s Corinium Museum.
You can find out more information about these exciting discoveries in the upcoming issue of Current Archaeology.
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