Monument record MDR970 - Neolithic open settlement, Aleck Low, Hartington Nether Quarter

SK 177591. Trial excavations in advance of plough damage were conducted on this late Neolithic flint and pottery scatter on the limestone upland at Aleck Low. The site was confirmed as a Late Neolithic settlement from its flint and grooved ware pottery assemblage. Five occupation floors were found with associated post holes and hearths. The site is the first of its type to have been excavated in the South Pennines. If the ploughsoil scatter is a guide, the site would have been a much larger settlement than that exposed in the trial excavations. (1). Neolithic open settlement site identified by fieldwalking to the south east of the tumulus (SMR 6903). An exploratory rescue excavation was mounted in advance of further ploughing in 1979. 418 square metres were opened to determine whether surface ploughsoil concentrations of finds reflected Neolithic occupation evidence surviving in the subsoil. Slight traces of V-shaped profile ard marks and four sunken sub-rectangular house floors were exposed. Two houses had associated hearths plus a number of storage pits and post-holes in their immediate surrounds. The nature of the superstructure of the houses is not known since a loss of soil from the area plus modern ploughing has removed the evidence. Each floor area would have been adequate for a small family unit. Evidence for their economy is slight as no bone survives in the clay soils. Soil samples from the structures were taken for flotation analysis. The structures were associated with Grooved Ware pottery, an assemblage of flints, including many scrapers (a large number of which were burnt) and a polished stone axe, probably of northern British origin. All flints were of east coast origin with the exception of 3% which were from the Wolds. (2).