Archaeological excavation revealed a Mesolithic layer below the monument, evidenced by much debris produced by flint knapping. During the 1957 excavation of the site, 2,300 Mesolithic flint fragments were found beneath it. Many more have been discovered in test trenches around the area, stretching up the hill towards Chestnuts Wood and for at least east of the tomb and south-west of it. Around west of the long barrow, excavation revealed flints in association with what was interpreted as a Mesolithic hearth. The large quantities of Mesolithic material, coupled with its broad spread, indicated that the site was probably inhabited over a considerable length of time during the Mesolithic period. Some trenches excavated in 1957 had Mesolithic flints directly below the megaliths, leading the excavator John Alexander to believe that "no great interval of time separated" the Mesolithic and Neolithic uses of the site.
