stonehenge - English Heritage

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047-120 section 2.qxd 6/21/05 4:19 PM Page 67 A third middle or later Bronze Age settlement is represented at an enclosure known as the Egg, situated a little to the south of Woodhenge on the western slopes of the Avon Valley (Illustration 45). Discovered through aerial photography at the same time as Woodhenge, this enclosure was sampled through excavation by the Cunningtons (Cunnington 1929, 49–51; Wainwright and Longworth 1971, 6; RCHM 1979, 23). The enclosure boundary comprised a palisade trench, one terminal of which is extended in a straight line southwards where it meets a linear ditch. In the interior were 25 pits, one containing carbonized barley. Subsequent analysis of aerial photographs and finds recovered from monitoring a pipe trench suggest that the Egg is part of a more extensive spread of middle Bronze Age occupation that would repay detailed investigation (RCHM 1979, 24). A ditch excavated beside the Packway Enclosure north of Durrington Walls may also be part of the same system of boundaries (Wainwright and Longworth 1971, 324). The fourth site is at Rollestone Grain Store, Shrewton. Here, field evaluations and excavations in advance of an expansion to the Wiltshire Grain Facility in 1996 revealed an enclosure some 60m by 50m in extent, bounded by a ditch 2m wide and over 1m deep. A single entrance lay in the middle of the western side. Inside the enclosure was a dewpond (Anon 1998, 163–4). Illustration 44 The Wilsford Shaft. [After Ashbee et al. 1989, figure 7.] 67
047-120 section 2.qxd 6/21/05 4:19 PM Page 68 Illustration 45 The Egg, Countess Road. An aerial view looking north across the cropmarks defining the enclosure. [Photograph: Peter Goodhugh, Copyright reserved.] Other settlement sites may be indicated by spreads of ceramics, burnt flint, and quern fragments recovered during the Stonehenge Environs Survey and subsequent field evaluations, for example: around the Packway north of Fargo Plantation; on Durrington Down; to the west of Stonehenge (Richards 1990, 276); and an enclosure east of Robin Hood’s Ball (Anon 2003, 236). One of the most extensive features of this period is the arrangement of fieldsystems – the so-called Celtic fields. These have been discussed and described by the RCHM (1979, xiii and 29–31), Richards (1990, 277–9), and McOmish et al. (2002, 51–6). The following blocks can be tentatively recognized but need further testing through excavation (from west to east; Map J): West of the Till A Parsonage Down/Shrewton system Between the Till and the Avon B Rox Hill and Wilsford Down C Long Barrow Crossroads D Stonehenge Down E Fargo Wood F Durrington Down East of the Avon G Amesbury Down H Earl’s Farm Down Not all these systems are necessarily contemporary, nor are all the features visible within them as earthworks or cropmarks recorded from aerial photographs. The present ‘blocking’ of recognizable chunks of fieldsystem is almost certainly to do as much with survival patterns as with the original extent of coherent units. All of those systems recognized around the edge of the Stonehenge Landscape as defined here continue into adjacent areas (see McOmish et al. 2002, figure 3.1 for example) and cannot easily be considered in isolation. Moreover, although it is widely believed that these systems have their origins in the mid or late second millennium BC, they are generally poorly dated, in many cases probably multi-phase, and even a superficial examination of the their plans and structural arrangement suggests that several quite different patterns are represented. A great deal of unpicking is needed to establish the nature of particular systems at given points in their development as well as the overall sequence. Apparently associated enclosures, possibly of Bronze Age or later date, can be recognized on Rox Hill (RCHM 1979, 24), north of Normanton (RCHM 1979, 24), and southwest of Fargo Plantation (RCHM 1979, 24–5). A network of linear earthworks runs through the landscape variously pre-dating, joining, delimiting, and post-dating the fieldsystems (Map J). They are especially notable on the southern part of the Avon/Till interfluve and have been fully described (RCHM 1979, xii and 25–9). As with the fieldsystems, dating is difficult. The best preserved are those on Lake Down southwest of Stonehenge (Illustration 46). Two sections through linear earthworks on Wilsford Down were cut as part of the Stonehenge Environs Project (Richards 1990, 192–3). Both confirmed the presence of substantial, although different, bedrock-cut ditches, but neither yielded dating evidence for their construction. A pitalignment perhaps also of the early first millennium BC has been noted south of Normanton Down. Not all the linear boundaries are confined to the areas west of the Avon. On the east side they can be seen in a major arrangement on Earl’s Farm Down which lies within the 68
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stonehenge - English Heritage

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