The excavation of feature LFF14 only produced two small shards of prehistoric pottery.

A middle Neolithic cooking pit and a length of ditch were the closest dated features. There was also a small well with coarse flint gritted pottery which is most likely to be Bronze Age. Perhaps we have a storage pit from as far back as 3500BC.

Rings of Change

The most striking characteristic of the feature is the way in which rings have formed on the inside edge of the circumference.

What we have seen cut into the Essex gravel subsoil is only the bottom of the original feature. Even taking into account four thousand years of surface erosion we would not expect the original 'pit' to have been any deeper than 1000mm from the surface.

Below the Lofts Farm topsoil a thin layer (less than 20mm) of silty 'brickearth' covers some lower parts of the Lofts Farm area. Today the salt water Blackwater Estuary is half a mile away but it is quite conceivable that our area flooded in the distant past.

Can you help?

I am thinking this was a clay lined fresh water container dug into the gravel terrace some time before 1500BC. - but I would love to know what you think.

• Where have any similar pits been recorded?
• Would it have made a very practical water container?
• Might it have contained something other than fresh water?
• Do you think the rings represent lining layers or contents refills?
• If lining layers - why so thin?
• Do you agree that it must have been filled and refilled very carefully?
• Any other questions I should be asking?

Please visit the Pitcalc Feedback page if you have comments or answers you would like to contribute.

This page just gives key evidence to solicit feedback to help with the interpretation of the 'Prehistoric Container Pit'. Anyone seeking more background is welcome to browse the Lofts Farm Interim Reports . An archive of all site notebooks, plans and photographs can be viewed - Here -