PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT AT LATTON LANDS 139 
as falling between 1440-1130 cal BC, approximating 
to the middle Bronze Age period (Needham 1996, 
133-4 and fig. 1). 
DISCUSSION 
The Middle Bronze Age 
Settlement Structure 
The archaeology suggests a domestic settlement 
situated on the river valley floor and probably 
overlooking a fertile agricultural landscape. The 
most prominent features would have been the two 
substantial linear ditches, 53 m and 69.2 m in 
length respectively that defined a settlement space 
open to the south-west with a north-east facing 
entrance. The area has clearly been subject to 
ploughing both in the medieval and Post-medieval 
period and the archaeology was somewhat 
truncated. It is therefore likely that the ditches were 
originally flanked by substantial internal banks and 
that they were deeper than the 0.5 m that survived 
at the time of excavation. Situated at a mid-way 
point between the north-eastern ditch terminals 
was a large waterhole, indicating that stock was 
kept either within the enclosure or nearby. Storage 
pits clustered to the south-west of the waterhole in 
and around the north-east facing entrance. Groups 
of postholes, both within the enclosure and 
immediately to the north of the northern ditch, may 
be the remains of internal fences, or an external 
palisade predating the ditches. None of these 
postholes formed coherent patterns and it must be 
assumed that some have been lost to ploughing. 
Only one of the two roundhouses found lay within 
the enclosure area; the other lay to the south-east. 
This rather low density of buildings may be a 
function of truncation. 
British middle Bronze Age settlements with 
discontinuous ditches are fairly common and some 
adopt an L-shaped pattern similar to the Latton 
example. At Thorny Down in south Wiltshire an L- 
shaped bank defined a settlement to the south and 
west, while a ditch delimited the north-western 
extent of activity (Stone 1941, 115). At Down Farm 
in Dorset a middle Bronze Age settlement was 
flanked to the south-east by a bank and ditch that 
curved round to the north-west at both ends, but 
did not encircle the settlement (Barrett et al. 1991, 
183-214). Similarly at Shearplace Hill, Dorset 
(Rahtz 1962) and Cock Hill in Sussex (Barrett et al. 
1991, 209), middle Bronze Age settlhements were 
partially enclosed by banks and ditches. The Angle 
Ditch in Dorset was an L-shaped ditch defining a 
settlement to its south-east (Barrett et al. 1991, 206; 
Rahtz 1962, 190). Many of these sites also contained 
roundhouses, ponds and waterholes similar to the 
ones uncovered at Latton. It is also notable that 
many of these sites lay close to early Bronze Age 
round barrows, which subsequently became the 
focus for middle Bronze Age cemeteries. The ring 
ditch at Down Farm was the focus for eight 
cremations and five inhumations of middle Bronze 
Age date (Barrett et al. 1991, 183 - 214). The ring 
ditch and series of pits uncovered to the south-west 
of the Latton enclosure may have seen similar 
activity in the middle Bronze Age, although this 
remains no more than an intriguing possibility. All 
of these sites were upland settlements, which 
accounts for the frequent preservation of their 
banks. The Latton Settlement remains unusual in 
the context of the Churn valley and the upper 
Thames region. 
Settlement Character and Chronology 
Environmental, artefactual and structural evidence 
points to a farmstead possibly practising a mixed 
farming regime and dating to the middle Bronze 
Age, as confirmed by the two radiocarbon 
determinations. The animal bone assemblage from 
the ditches and the waterhole is dominated by 
cattle, probably the main source of meat, with little 
evidence for consumption of wild animals. Small 
amounts of horse and dog bone demonstrate their 
presence, but with no indication of how they were 
exploited. Molluscan evidence from the terminal of 
ditch 784 points to open grassland nearby 
indicating that animals were grazed in the area. 
Environmental samples from the lower fills of the 
waterhole contained cereal pollen which, along 
with the presence of storage pits, indicates that 
arable crops were being produced and consumed. A 
loomweight from one of the ditch fills may be taken 
to suggest that the site was engaged in textile 
production. The possible presence of hemp pollen 
from the waterhole may be seen to back up this 
contention. 
Concentrations of burnt limestone from the fills 
of the pits, ditches and the waterhole present 
interpretative difficulties, as their function is not 
immediately obvious, either from their form, or 
their context. Such concentrations are relatively 
common on late Bronze Age sites in the Upper 
Thames valley, such as Shorncote (Brossler et al. 
