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Investigations at Two Mesolithic Sites on the London Orbital Motorway (M25) in Buckinghamshire, 1981–83

Allen, David; Dalwood, Hal; Farley, Michael; (2022) Investigations at Two Mesolithic Sites on the London Orbital Motorway (M25) in Buckinghamshire, 1981–83. Records of Buckinghamshire , 62 pp. 1-49. Green open access

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Abstract

This article describes two Mesolithic sites excavated during 1981–3 as the M25 was under construction. The first site, in the vicinity of Mansfield Farm near Iver, has been dated to the early Mesolithic on typological grounds, although the flint assemblage from here was small. The nearby excavation of a substantial trench intended for diversion of the lower reaches of the Alderbourne enabled some recording of an earlier deposit associated with the Holocene infilling of the adjacent river Colne. Radiocarbon dates on plant remains were obtained from this deposit. The second site, in the Misbourne valley, produced a substantial assemblage of worked flints and animal bone. Most of these were recovered from tufa deposits that were found to occur throughout much of the valley floor. The tufa also yielded rich assemblages of molluscs, which showed that the site became progressively drier through the sequence. Woodland is indicated by some of the land snails, as well as the assemblage of small mammals. Radiocarbon dates on some larger bones indicated that the archaeology was late Mesolithic, a conclusion consistent with typology and faunal analyses. These sites again highlight the unusual richness of Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites in the Colne valley and its tributaries.

Type: Article
Title: Investigations at Two Mesolithic Sites on the London Orbital Motorway (M25) in Buckinghamshire, 1981–83
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: http://www.bucksas.org.uk/onlinerecords.html
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology > Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10152142
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