Prehistoric midden at West Porth, Annet

Reasons for Designation

The Isles of Scilly, the westernmost of the granite masses of south west England, contain a remarkable abundance and variety of archaeological remains from over 4000 years of human activity. The remote physical setting of the islands, over 40km beyond the mainland in the approaches to the English Channel, has lent a distinctive character to those remains, producing many unusual features important for our broader understanding of the social development of early communities. Throughout the human occupation there has been a gradual submergence of the islands' land area, providing a stimulus to change in the environment and its exploitation. This process has produced evidence for responses to such change against an independent time-scale, promoting integrated studies of archaeological, environmental and linguistic aspects of the islands' settlement. The islands' archaeological remains demonstrate clearly the gradually expanding size and range of contacts of their communities. By the post- medieval period (from AD 1540), the islands occupied a nationally strategic location, resulting in an important concentration of defensive works reflecting the development of fortification methods and technology from the mid 16th to the 20th centuries. An important and unusual range of post- medieval monuments also reflects the islands' position as a formidable hazard for the nation's shipping in the western approaches. The exceptional preservation of the archaeological remains on the islands has long been recognised, producing an unusually full and detailed body of documentation, including several recent surveys.

Middens are concentrations of occupation refuse which has been aggregated to form an artificial mound or a defined spread, rather than dispersed or used for manuring. The refuse they contain may result from long or short term occupation, and from a broad or narrow range of activities; the origin of a particular midden within that considerable range may be determined by analysis of its contents and its siting. Midden contents commonly include food debris such as animal and fish bones, mollusc shells and charred plant remains, with unburnt remains surviving in favourable circumstances. Middens may also include ash and soil from occupation surfaces, artefacts such as flint tools, pottery and, in later middens, metal and glass objects, together with debris from tool manufacture and other activities. Midden sites vary considerably according to their origin ranging from heaps of diverse domestic refuse located close to a year-round settlement structure, to mounds of largely mollusc shells and fishbones at seasonally-occupied coastal sites favoured for fishing and preparation of the catch. Nationally, middens are known from all phases of human occupation to the present day, but they may be assigned to particular periods by the presence of distinctive artefacts in their fabric, by close physical association with datable occupation structures, or by their occurrence within deposits of a known environmental phase. More precise dating may be obtained by scientific analyses of their contents, for example by radiocarbon dating of organic material. Medieval and earlier middens are an important source of information about the nature and organisation of economic activity of earlier communities. Their contents also provide important technological and environmental evidence, while middens accumulated over long periods also preserve a rare continuum of data on past economic, technological and environmental trends. At least 24 middens are recorded on the Isles of Scilly, ranging in date from the Neolithic period (c.4000 to 2000 BC) to the 19th century AD, though it is considered that more will be revealed by a combination of systematic survey and advancing coastal erosion. This midden on Annet survives well, without recorded excavation, and forms one of the larger known midden sites despite some encroachment of the shoreline onto its south east edge. The prehistoric pottery from the Annet middens, considered to derive from surface collection, confirms their early date and that their contents are a valuable survival of evidence relating to the island's prehistoric land use. Although some adjoining contemporary settlement areas have been submerged by rising sea levels, the important data embodied in this midden is set in its wider prehistoric context by the survival of the other prehistoric settlement and funerary monuments on this island and by the environmental sequence embodied within an unusually deep thrift turf that blankets much of this island's land surface.

Details

The monument includes a large prehistoric midden which borders the north west side of West Porth near the centre of Annet, an uninhabited island in the south west of the Isles of Scilly. The midden survives as an extensive relatively low mound, most of whose volume is made up of limpet shells with some shells of other marine molluscs. The midden rises to 0.7m high and extends for 60m north east - south west along the upper shore of the bay. Due to the island's gradual submergence, the present shoreline encroaches on the south east of the midden but its shelly fabric remains visible in surface exposures for up to 25m inland from the upper shoreline at the south west, narrowing to 2.5m from the upper shoreline at the north east. This is one of three prehistoric middens on central and southern Annet, the others being located on the opposite side of West Porth. Bronze Age pottery was recovered from these middens in the early 20th century; the other two middens have also produced prehistoric flint artefacts and are closely associated with a broadly contemporary hut circle and field system. A prehistoric field wall is also visible near the western tip of Annet and a Bronze Age kerbed cairn is sited near the summit of the island's north west hill, 300m to the north west. All of these archaeological features are the subjects of separate schedulings.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

15448

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Russell, V, Isles of Scilly Survey, (1980)

Other
Title: 1:10000 Ordnance Survey Map, SV 80 NE Source Date: 1980 Author: Publisher: Surveyor:
Parkes, C, AM 107s for Scilly SMR entries PRN 7047.2 & 7048, (1988)
Parkes, C, AM 107 for Scilly SMR entry PRN 7050, (1988)
Parkes, C, AM 107s for Scilly SMR entries PRN 7047.1 & 7050, (1988)
Parkes, C, AM 107 for Scilly SMR entry PRN 7048, (1988)
Parkes, C, AM 107 for Scilly SMR entry PRN 7046, (1988)

End of official list entry

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