Archaeological Discovery Near Heathrow - A Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure

I was just traveling along the m4 motorway as you do coming away from from Heathrow and realized I was near to something quite significantly I he just interests you a bit so five miles in that direction is Heathrow Airport about two miles in that direct is Windsor Castle American fans of The Office will be intrigued to know that just over the hill there Justin in the distance there stone's throw away is the town of Slough where the original series of the office was based yeah but the significance of what I'm doing now if I've got my bearings right and I think I have I'm standing on top of what once upon a time was a Neolithic cause waiting closure it would have stretched quite a circle around me and I think I'm standing on top of where one of the pits were dug now what this is what you can see around me is a gravel pit that's been dug by Oh cynics a limited now assilex huge company but they're really good with the archaeology so Wessex archaeology have been in here and dug this site and the results have been phenomenal the amount of material they took take I've taken out the pits that I'm probably standing over right now as you can see it it's all dug out and and flooded but the amount of material was taken out by Wessex arc archaeology speaks to a really vibrant community in this very spot five thousand and more years ago so bit of extraordinary expedition but it gives me a little bit of a thrill to be here and it's the the craziness of the began for motorway Slough just behind me I suppose a good state still vibrant but the amount of pottery and and bones and Flint have been dug out round here a quite phenomenal I'll I'll prop they'll get back home and add on a bit so you've got a bit more detail but there you go you never know what oddities are going to do you okay back at Mission Control I promised I'd show you a bit more so look at this right so here we are in Google Maps and this is approximately where I was standing roundabout here and you can see the curve of the causeway ting closure pits and Neolithic pits I can only presume that Wessex archaeology got to dig down quite intensively on them and this photograph had taken some time ago because standing there now you could see it was a bit of a desolation as semak's had got in there to dig out the gravel interestingly I would have wondering why this circular area here has been left because I think that's definitely still there I'm just wondering why I wonder if there's something there I'll tell you what there is something here this is Ben and Jerry's some Ben and Jerry's UK headquarters there okay there's the motorway that's Slough and over here that's Heathrow Airport and of course if i zoom out you get the whole of London in and if i zoom out even further yeah the blue dot is where I am now so here's a video I found by Wessex archaeology showing what they were up to at the time and the whole of this dig is funded by semak's themselves the company that owns the site yep there's another you I come to been standing very far from where this guy is now and isn't that an extraordinary site I'll stop the video because that too an archaeologist a field archaeologist it is an extraordinary view you just don't get fits like that only very rarely of course I can't speak to what sort of bones those are and there's a mixture of bones and pottery in there so you know that's quite a lot of work getting that out before semak's get back in there and and start excavating there gravel so yeah there's pottery there's Flint there's Flint scrapers there is a bit of Langdale axe by the looks of it yeah yeah there's a little graphic showing where it must have come from same view again excavating a little bit of pottery there so yeah quite extraordinary stuff and there's another view now here we've got a drone shot of the causeway ting closure and if I run the video you can see the green blobs show you where the Neolithic pits at the edge of the enclosure would have been those markers you can see are not markers at all but they're people casting their shadows across the landscape there and you can just see some of these sections the archaeological sections taken out cross sectioning the pits there I think they did a lot more sense if the aerial view from Google is to be believed and where this guy's standing here I think that's where I was standing to to make the video not so long ago well that's so there you have it hope that was interesting and if you didn't know there was such a things riding court farm cause waiting closure before you do now okay see you next time bye bye thank you for watching this prehistory guy's show there's loads more to watch and you can get some of it on this playlist here if you'd like to receive updates about when we publish new content hit the subscribe button and you can unlock even more content by becoming a patreon supporter this button here to find out more about that see you soon

Channel: The Prehistory Guys

Views: 3,476

Keywords: michael bott, archaeology, ancient history, neolithic, bronze age, burial sites, ancient history podcast, ancient history discoveries, neolithic era, neolithic europe, neolithic art, neolithic man, megalithic builders, megalithic sites, megalithic archaeology, megalithic culture, megalithic europe, causewayed enclosure, wessex archaeology, cemex ltd

Id: OiZwJxLsnsE

Length: 6min 58sec (418 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2020