PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 109 
Figure 14 
\_ Ring Ditch 
MS 
Fig. 2 Area of Excavation and Watching Brief 
southern end. It was 1.2 m wide and averaged 0.9 m 
in depth. In profile it was generally U-shaped, 
although the base narrowed to form a V-shape in 
places. There were at least four recuts. The ditch 
terminals were rounded. The fills were 
predominantly silty clays or clay silts with some 
silty sands. Middle Bronze Age pottery was 
recovered (Figures 16.6-16.7), with concentrations 
in the terminals, along with fragments of burnt 
limestone rubble. Five environmental samples 
(sample nos. 5, 17, 18, 19 and 20) were taken from 
the fills (Figure 4 and Table 3). Animal bone, 
(including cattle bone and the mandible of a dog 
from the northern ditch terminal), was recovered 
from the fills. 
Waterhole 421 (Figures 3 and 5) 
Waterhole 421 was oval in plan and asymmetric in 
profile, having a steeply sloping eastern side and a 
more gradual western side. It was orientated 
north-south and measured 9.5 m in length by 7 m 
in width and 1.26 m in depth. The waterhole was 
filled predominantly with silty clays interspersed 
with lenses of sand and sandy clay. The basal fill 
(420) was a sterile sandy gravel with lenses of clay. 
Overlying this were layers of silty clay (481 and 
480) containing much_ organic’ material, 
interspersed with a layer of sand (504). The upper 
half of the waterhole was filled with layers of 
sandy clay (419, 418) overlain by a deposit of silty 
clay (417), all containing burnt limestone rubble. 
All the fills contained sherds of middle Bronze 
Age pottery (see Figures 17.9-17.13 for an 
illustrated selection). Fragments of a distinctive 
round-based wooden bowl (Figure 19) as well as 
some unworked wood (yielding radio-carbon dates 
of 1440-1210 BC and 1440-1130 BC at two sigma) 
came from layer 481, which overlay the basal gravel. 
A pollen sample (sample 9) was taken from the 
lower fills (Figures 5 and 20). Animal bone, 
including cattle, horse, pig, sheep/goat, red-deer 
and dog, was spread throughout the fills. Three 
fragments of worked red deer antler came from fills 
418 and 480. 
