Matt Leivers

Wessex Archaeology · Research

Present-day people from England and Wales harbour more ancestry derived from Early European Farmers (EEF) than people of the Early Bronze Age¹. To understand this, we generated genome-wide data from 793 individuals, increasing data from the Middle to Late Bronze and Iron Age in Britain by 12-fold, and Western and Central Europe by 3.5-fold. Between...

Newly discovered and previously documented Late Neolithic chalk plaques from the Stonehenge locality have been subjected to new, non-invasive techniques which allow access to previously unseen elements of archaeological evidence. The application of these methods – involving Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and Polynomial Texture Mapping (PT...

The landscape around Stonehenge contains a number of major Early Neolithic monuments dating to the fourth millennium BC, including the Stonehenge Cursus, the Lesser Cursus, Robin Hood’s Ball causewayed enclosure and several long barrows. A previously unsuspected Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure whose northeast rim was uncovered in 2016 on the s...

Recent excavations for the Army Basing Programme on the periphery of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site have revealed extensive evidence of Early, Middle and Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age activity, including a causewayed enclosure, burials, occupation, pit groups, henges, post alignments and circles. Several of these either incorporate or ref...

This is not the final version of the supplementary data files. Copy editing was undertaken on the digital files. To access the final supplementary files visit - https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue55/4/supp-text.html

A series of massive geophysical anomalies, located south of the Durrington Walls henge monument, were identified during fluxgate gradiometer survey undertaken by the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project (SHLP). Initially interpreted as dewponds, these data have been re-evaluated, along with information on similar features revealed by archaeological...

Excavation of an Early Beaker-Early Bronze Age funerary monument at Porton Down revealed an unusually complex burial sequence of 12 individuals, spanning four centuries, including eight neonates or infants and only one probable male, surrounded by a segmented ring-ditch. In the centre was a large grave which contained the disturbed remains of an ad...

Excavations at Cliffs End Farm undertaken in 2004/5 uncovered a dense area of archaeological remains including Bronze Age barrows and enclosures, a large prehistoric mortuary feature, and a small early 6th to late 7th century Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery. An extraordinary series of human and animal remains were recovered from the Late Bronze Age...

Multi-proxy analyses from floodplain deposits in the Colne Valley, southern England, have provided a palaeoenvironmental context for the immediately adjacent Terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic site of Three Ways Wharf. These deposits show the transition from an open cool environment to fully developed heterogeneous floodplain vegetati...

A programme of archaeological works, undertaken in advance of improvements to the A3 London to Portsmouth road at Hindhead, Surrey, saw the investigation of 21 mitigation sites along the proposed 6.7km route between Bramshott Common and Thursley. Although archaeological remains were relatively sparse along much of the route, a number of discoveries...

Archaeological investigations on the site of the former Great Western Steamship Company’s Engine Works (1839–52) at the Great Western Dockyard, Bristol have revealed elements of the world’s first purpose-built integrated iron steamship works, created specifically to build Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s iron-hulled SS Great Britain. Its innovative engine...

Excavation at Dowd’s Farm, Hedge End, revealed evidence for Mesolithic to post-medieval activity. Mesolithic and Neolithic activity is attested by a small flint assemblage. A concentration of Bronze Age pits provides the first evidence for permanent occupation and an associated burnt tree-throw hole may suggest that tree clearance was being underta...

The East Coast Regional Environmental Characterisation (REC) Programme is a multidisciplinary investigation that has employed “state of the art” techniques to develop a broad understanding of the habitats and areas of archaeological interest over an extensive area of approximately 3,300 km2 of the seabed off East Anglia. The study was conducted ove...

An archaeological watching brief at Knook Reservoir uncovered six early Neolithic pits, which produced a substantial assemblage of worked flint, pottery and animal bone indicative of settlement activity.

Chapter on the small finds assemblage recovered during excavations at 60–63 Fenchurch Street, including amongst others a rare Roman foot rule, a steelyard, a Knickfibel Almgren 19, a cosmetic grinder, a seal box, a vessel lid with dolphin applique, a bell and a cuirass hinge.

Excavations revealed aspects of the changing environment of the floodplain of the Lower Lea Valley from the Late Glacial to the early historic periods. Evidence for land use mostly related to activity along the western bank of a former stream. Wooden revetments (the earliest dated one being Early Bronze Age), ditches, gullies, pits, a droveway, lan...

Developer-funded archaeology on the Isle of Sheppey resulted in the discovery of not one but two Neolithic causewayed enclosures on the same hilltop in very close (c. 300 m) proximity. In the later Bronze Age enclosures and cremation cemeteries were constructed immediately to the east, followed by Iron Age enclosures and, ultimately, field systems...

New evidence from Bryn yr Hen Bobl, Llanedwen, Anglesey - Volume 74 Issue 286 - Toby Driver, Mike Hamilton, Matt Leivers, Julia Roberts, Rick Peterson

Excavations carried out in 1925 and 1952 at a round mound in Aberdeenshire revealed quantities of early Neolithic artefacts and features. Publication of the site was funded by Historic Scotland.

This thesis examines the megalithic chambers and associated buildings of the Neolithic period in north Wales. It is proposed that these buildings have been interpreted incorrectly through a reductionist paradigm which sees all formallydeposited human remains as funerary. The material in the study area is introduced, and placed into a historical con...