EDO5005 - Crouch Hill, Stanpit Marsh, Christchurch; excavation 1969

M Ridley conducted a small excavation on Crouch Hill, Stanpit Marsh during 1969. The work took place at a time when the mound was under threat from the rolling activities of ponies grazing on the marsh. Only a rough plan of the excavation survives. Very little pottery was recovered but the assemblage included six pieces of grooved ware and an almost complete collared urn containing a cremation. Flint implements, including a large quntity of burnt flint, and a fragment of polished bone were recovered. No stratigraphic details are available and it is not known whether the material occurred in concentrations or spread throughout the trench, although subsequent field walking by J Gardiner and others in 1984-5 suggests the latter. The site seems to have been the focus for some kind of late neolithic activity prior to a mound being constructed and a bronze age urned cremation inserted.