stonehenge - English Heritage

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
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