Analysis of a probable Middle Bronze Age boundary and pre-enclosure palaeosol at West Northwood Farm, Bodmin Moor: occupation and continuity in the Cornish Bronze Age?

The 2017 excavations at West Northwood Farm, St Neot, Bodmin Moor, afforded the opportunity to investigate a palaeosol preserved beneath a probable Middle Bronze Age enclosure bank. The analysis of the palaeosol identified a brown earth soil, which prior to burial had not undergone sustained waterlogging or been subject to the start of podzolisation. The palaeosol revealed evidence for a long period of activity at this locale, prior to construction of the enclosure bank. This interpretation is consistent with limited excavation evidence, recording some Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age flint work in the excavation of a later roundhouse. This is suggestive of some degree of continuity in the use of this locale from the Early Bronze Age through the Middle Bronze Age, evidence that is often lacking in archaeological sites, due to the differences in the monuments and hence archaeological records created during these two periods.