stonehenge - English Heritage

047-120 section 2.qxd 6/21/05 4:17 PM Page 38
There are also hints of finds on the interfluves between
the main rivers in the area: a flint core of ‘tortoise’ type
found southwest of Greenland Farm, Winterbourne Stoke
(Anon 1973; DM 39.1972), and a handaxe from ‘near
Stonehenge’ (WA 1993b, Av3–3). In 1992 a group of three
handaxes and associated worked flint was found on an
upland field situated on a spur on the north side of the
Wylye Valley just outside the Stonehenge Landscape at
Stapleford (Harding 1995).
All of these form part of a much larger body of material
from the Avon Valley and its tributary valleys, itself
connected to the Solent River in antiquity (Wenban-Smith
and Hosfield 2001), and serve to emphasize the great
potential of these deposits in the Stonehenge Landscape
(cf. Roe and Radley 1969, figure 1; Harding and Bridgland
1998; Wymer 1999). Most important is that the valley fill
deposits in the Stonehenge Landscape (Map E) do not
appear to have been extensively quarried, unlike those
lower down the Avon, and they thus represent an
important reserve.
POST-GLACIAL HUNTER­
GATHERERS (12,000–4000 BC)
The late glacial, post-glacial, and early Holocene saw the
transition from tundra environments to an open hazel and
pine Boreal woodland: the Wildwood. Archaeological
evidence for human activity mainly takes the form of
scattered lithic debris and occasional evidence of
constructed features. No sites in the Stonehenge Landscape
have been excavated with the primary aim of investigating
aspects of this period, although relevant material has been
uncovered during salvage operations and the investigation
of later monuments and features. Map F shows the
distribution of findspots and sites relevant to the period
c.12,000 to c.4000 BC.
The extensive surveys of the Stonehenge Environs
Project revealed very little evidence of late Upper
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic activity beyond a light scatter of
microliths. Richards (1990,16) suggests that this may be a
result of inappropriate sampling strategies being applied.
Another possible bias in the picture is caused by coverdeposits
sealing land surfaces of this period. Richards
(1990, 263) cites the results of a sample excavation through
a colluviual bench on the western side of the River Avon
below Durrington Walls which revealed an in situ bladebased
flint industry with microliths. More recently, in 2004,
field evaluations west of Countess Farm carried out in
connection with planning the A303 improvements revealed
a hollow in the bed-rock with associated Mesolithic
flintwork sealed beneath a layer of alluvium/colluvium
(J Keyte pers. comm.). Other similar deposits no doubt await
discovery along the main river valleys.
Early Mesolithic
Nothing that can be ascribed to the late Upper Palaeolithic
either on chronological (c.12,000–c.9000 BC) or on cultural
grounds (Creswellian or Cheddarian flintworking
traditions) has been recognized from the Stonehenge
Landscape to date. The earliest evidence currently
recognized belongs to what is conventionally referred to as
the early Mesolithic, broadly the ninth to seventh millennia
BC, which is often characterized culturally as the period of
the Maglemosian hunters.
No extensive early Mesolithic flint scatters are known
within the Stonehenge Landscape, but, unusually, there is
evidence for constructions of the period. The most securely
dated comprise three substantial postholes and a tree-hole
found during the construction of the Stonehenge car-park
north of the modern A344 in 1966 (Vatcher and Vatcher 1973),
and a pit (known as Pit 9580) found about 100m to the east
during alterations to the visitor centre in 1988–9 (Cleal et al.
1995, 43–7). Charcoal dates posthole A to 8560–8200 BC
(HAR-455: 9130±180 BP), posthole B to 7550–6550 BC (HAR­
456: 8090±180 BP), and the base of the recut secondary fill of
pit 9580 to 8300–7750 BC (GU-5109: 8880±80 BP). The date
of the tree-hole is not known although it is sometimes
assumed to be contemporary and may in fact have been the
focus of this small cluster of features. Their wider context in
terms of potential relationships with areas outside the
investigated trenches is unknown. No artefacts are
associated with any of the features, but they are distinctive in
having an abundance of pine charcoal which Allen (in Cleal et
al. 1995, 52) associates with the Boreal biostratigraphic
subdivision of the Flandrian. The pollen sequence and
mollusca profile from Pit 9580 provide the first evidence for
the character of the Boreal woodland actually within the
chalklands: a birch, pine, hazel mix.
The posts that once filled the postholes in the
Stonehenge car-park are widely interpreted as ‘totem-pole’­
like structures (e.g. Allen in Cleal et al. 1995, 55–6; Allen
1997, 125–6) and as such would represent the first
appearance of monumental features in the landscape. The
possible connection between a tree as a ‘natural’ thing and
an upright post as a ‘cultural’ thing may be relevant, and
perhaps shows that some kind of special significance
attached to the area even at this early date. More than
anything, however, these postholes illustrate the
importance of dating of even the most simple of features.
Potentially contemporary features have been found at
two other sites; more may await recognition through the
review of published excavation reports. Below the
Winterbourne Stoke barrow G30, situated in the western end
of the Stonehenge Cursus, there was an oval hollow about
1.8m by 2.8m in extent. It stratigraphically pre-dates the
barrow and contained only pine charcoal as an indicator of
its age (Christie 1963, 377 and 381). Similarly, a subsoil
hollow beneath the bank at Woodhenge contained abundant
flecks of charcoal and a slightly calcined core-trimming flake
of Mesolithic type associated with a woodland fauna (Evans
and Wainwright 1979, 73, 162, and 192–4).
Stray finds of early Mesolithic types may well exist within
existing assemblages from the area, but have yet to be
recognized. That the Avon Valley was occupied during this
period is, however, well attested by the substantial
settlement known at Castle Meadow, Downton, just outside
the Stonehenge Landscape south of Salisbury. Here structural
evidence in the form of scoops, ‘cooking holes’, and
stakeholes was found, as well as a large flint assemblage
(Higgs 1959). Interestingly, like Stonehenge, Downton also lay
within an area that was later used in the later third and early
second millennia BC (Rahtz and ApSimon 1962).
Late Mesolithic
The late Mesolithic as expressed by conventional culturalhistorical
terminology, broadly the sixth and fifth millennia BC,
38