Culverwell Mesolithic Site

The Culverwell Mesolithic Site.

Culverwell Mesolithic Site is a Mesolithic settlement, located on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, England. It is found in the local area known as Culverwell, along the Portland Bill Road which leads from the village of Southwell to Portland Bill.^[1] It is within an area of unspoiled countryside, with no past quarrying.^[2] The site is located near the southern tip of Portland, lying midway on the slope of a hill facing south towards the sea. The site is about 274 metres from the present day cliff tops and about 270 metres east of a spring after which the site takes its name.^[3] The site is maintained by the Association for Portland Archaeology – a small group dedicated to researching, investigating and excavating on Portland.^[4]

Open days have been held on the site, where guided tours take place of the preserved site, showing and explaining the visible remains and artefacts and how Mesolithic people lived.^[5] The site is usually open on each first Sunday of the month from May to the end of August and also on public holidays during the Summer period.^[6] It has also been opened as part of the Festival of Archaeology.^[7] In 2004, the Culverwell Mesolithic Site won an archaeological award; the prestigious "Pitt Rivers Award", for developing this Mesolithic site on Portland.^[8]

The surrounding fields between the Bill and Southwell are made up of an ancient strip field system, once found all over the island before quarrying continued to destroy them. These particular fields remain untouched from housing or quarrying. Culverwell Mesolithic Site has become a scheduled monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This includes surrounding fields, also relating to the Mesolithic period, and these fields lead across to the coastline. A separate patch is also included a little further north.^[9] Aside from the fields attached to the Culverwell Site, two separate open fields have been also been scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. One field is found just south of Southwell village along the Portland Bill Road, and another is located around the Old Higher Lighthouse, heading inland.^[10]

Background

The site is said to be circa 7500-8500 years old. The site's main feature is the large floor of limestone slabs on top of a shell midden (rubbish dump). The floor is unique for this period and is also the earliest known structural evidence in England for the extensive use of Portland Jurassic limestone on a living site. The midden, on which the floor lies, is contained within a natural gully that was used for dumping refuse.

Other features on the site include: the remains of a low wall within the southern area of the site, where it formed a windbreak; four hearths near the eastern side of the floor with a small paved area adjacent to Hearth 4; and a pit 1 metre in diameter and 1 metre deep, which was probably used for cooking food by indirect heating methods. A ritual feature incorporated into the floor consisted of a larger-than-average sub-triangular stone (Stone X) with a large beach cobble next to it: the big stone covered a stone-lined hole which contained a pierced scallop shell, an axe, and a round pebble "planted" on its edge into the midden material.

Vast quantities of stone tools and the debris created during their production have been found on the site. The most common tools are microliths, scrapers, knives, chopping tools, pounders and picks. Pierced shell beads have also been found. Some academics estimate that the total Mesolithic population of Britain never exceeded 5000, and it is likely that approximately 20 people lived on the site for at least 20-25 years in 4-5 stone huts, or huts of branches, turf and skin that were erected on the floor for drainage. The occupants were possible semi-sedentary, and survived by gathering molluscs and edible plants with the addition of occasional meat. Water came from the nearby Culver Well, and the chert for the stone artefacts came from exposures in the cliffs. The edge of the sea was about 300–400 metres further out than it is presently.^[5]

The Culverwell stream.

In early Mesolithic times, the east coast of Britain was still attached to mainland Europe, and sea levels were a lot lower than they are now, however a natural disaster may have changed that. A recent hypothesis is that much of the remaining coastal land, already much reduced in size from the original land area, was flooded by a tsunami around 8200BP (6200 BCE), and that the tsunami was caused by a submarine landslide off the coast of Norway known as the Storegga Slide. This theory suggests "that the Storegga Slide tsunami would have had a catastrophic impact on the contemporary coastal Mesolithic population. Following the Storegga Slide tsunami, it appears, Britain finally became separated from the continent and, in cultural terms, the Mesolithic in Britain goes its own way."^[6]

Just inside the site entrance is a dinosaur footprint on a rock, and a reconstruction of the sort of dwelling that was used here in the Mesolithic. This reconstruction has lasted over nine years, and provides decent shelter, with the door angled away from the prevailing winds.^[8]

On 19 November 1999, Archaeopress published the book Culverwell Mesolithic Habitation Site: Excavation Report and Research Studies, written by Susann Palmer. The book is part of the British Archaeological Reports (BAR).^[11]

Surrounding area

In the surrounding area is the Ancient Strip Field System, which includes the Lawn Sheds.^[12] There are still signs of the medieval 'lawnsheds' – a system of strip farming which is also found in the Purbecks around Langton Matravers. The strips run in parallel lines across the fields between Southwell and Portland Bill. In Victorian times and earlier over 2,000 of these strips were to be found all over Tophill but most have now been built upon. They represent the remains of a Saxon strip farming system once common throughout Dorset. However, because inheritance laws on Portland favoured sons and daughters equally, the farmland became increasingly sub-divided and dispersed such that some people ended up owning hundreds of plots each no more than a few square yards in area.^[2]

The spring at Culverwell, located nearby, would have provided fresh water for the Mesolithic people living nearby. The stream runs 300 metres east across fields and through a deepening gully. This is crossed by a footbridge and then tips over the cliff edge to form Portland's only running stream and waterfall.^[2]

References

Coordinates: 50°31′24″N 2°26′44″W / 50.5232°N 2.4455°W / 50.5232; -2.4455