Archaeologia Aeliana Series 5

Report on a site excavated and recorded in 2004 in advance of construction, at the edge of Milfield village. The excavations revealed features which suggested the presence of a fairly substantial structure. Pottery finds indicated a Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age date for the site and a radiocarbon determination returned a date of c. 2100 cal BC. Organic material showed that wheat was being grown in the vicinity of the site amongst a mixed woodland cover with identified species including oak, hazel, birch and alder. Other plants included grasses, clover and nettle, the latter being an indicator of disturbed ground, possibly for agriculture or grazing. A single flint flake and a chert flake were found together with some struck agate, including one bladelet and a core which suggested a Mesolithic presence on the site prior to the Neolithic/Early Bronze Age occupation. Includes

The paper examines the accepted understanding of the profile of the ditch to the north of Hadrian's Wall as revealed by excavation. It aims to show that there is nowhere on the Wall where this profile has been conclusively demonstrated, and that the idea of the existence of a square channel at the base of the ditch derives from a mistaken interpretation made during the early days of its excavation.

Short paper on the Presbyterian chapel built in Morpeth in the 1720s for the Rev John Horsley (1685--1732), antiquary and author of Britannia Romana.

The author discusses an account written in 1801 by the Rev John Skinner concerning a site known as the Chapel or Chapel House, near Thirlwall on Hadrian's Wall, and the suggestion that explosives had been used shortly before then to aid stone-robbing at the site.