A Prehistoric Rock Shelter Burial Site and Enclosure at Scabba Wood, Sprotbrough, South Yorkshire

Abstract

In 1992 two Middle Neolithic adult skeletons were excavated by South Yorkshire Archaeological Services from beneath a rock overhang at Scabba Wood (SE527019), near Sprotbrough, within one of the valleys north of the Don Gorge. In 1994, the Yorkshire Archaeological Society’s Doncaster branch carried out a geophysical survey of a rectangular enclosure (SE530019), previously recognised by air photography, north-east of the wood, and in 1996 they began the excavation of a stone-walled, sub-rectangular enclosure within the wood, 150 m south of the rock overhang (SE530107). In 1997 and 1998 they were joined by a team from Sheffield University that also continued investigations at the stone-walled enclosure and along the rock overhang. Finds indicate occupation from the Late Iron and Roman period and Neolithic and Early Bronze Age use of the rock overhang for the disposal of the dead.