stonehenge - English Heritage

047-120 section 2.qxd 6/21/05 4:19 PM Page 71
axes of the type found widely across southern Wales,
southwest England, Wessex, the Channel Islands, and
northern France (especially Brittany, Normandy, and the
Loire basin). An axe that is very similar, if not identical, to
those produced in the Bulford mould was found at
Sandleheath on the Wiltshire/Hampshire Border (Moore
and Rowlands 1972, 28; and see Needham 1981). The other
side of the Bulford mould has a matrix for casting a very
rare kind of socketed axe which has two loops on different
levels. Overall, the mould belongs within Burgess’ Ewart
Park industrial phase of the later Bronze Age (Burgess 1968,
17–26), a period of diversification and change. Moore and
Rowlands (1972, 33) suggest that peripatetic axe-smiths
working in this tradition often set up their workshops close
to river-crossings, a very suitable context for the Bulford
mould. It is also notable that this evidence of
bronzeworking is contemporary with the large hoard of
Sompting axes from Figheldean Down discussed above.
IRON AGE (700 BC–AD 50)
Although the Wessex region has a pre-eminent position in
British Iron Age studies (Champion 2001), the period from
700 BC through to the Roman Conquest is traditionally
regarded as a time of relatively little activity in and around
the southern part of Salisbury Plain (see Cunliffe 1973a–c
for regional context). In fact, however, many of the main
features of the southern British Iron Age are well
represented: open settlements, enclosures, and hillforts.
The full chronology and sequence of these is poorly
understood, but taken with the additional evidence of wellpreserved
fieldsystems and boundaries this period has
considerable potential for future research. Map K shows the
distribution of sites and monuments of the Iron Age.
Most of the earlier ceremonial monuments so
characteristic of the second and third millennia BC show
very little sign of activity after about 700 BC. Nothing firmly
attributable to the period has been found at Stonehenge
itself, and even the numerous barrows and cemeteries of
the middle and later second millennium BC seem to have
been left alone. The Wilsford Shaft was almost completely
infilled by about 400 BC to judge from a small group of
dated material in the very upper fill (Ashbee et al. 1989,
figure 64). The Stonehenge Environs Survey failed to yield a
single piece of Iron Age pottery from its fieldwalking
programme (Richards 1990).
The best-known class of monument of the Iron Age is the
hillfort, of which numerous variants have been recognized
(Cunliffe 1991, 312–70). Within the Stonehenge Landscape
there are two major hillforts. The largest is Ogbury
overlooking the River Avon at Great Durnford. This poorly
known site is a univallate enclosure of 26ha but it has never
been adequately surveyed and is an obvious candidate for
study. Crawford and Keiller (1928, 150–2) provide the best
description and illustrate their account with a fine nearvertical
aerial photograph; accounts of the site extend back
to Stukeley’s visit in the early eighteenth century. Internal
Illustration 48
The Durnford Hoard of
middle Bronze Age
metalwork. [Drawings by
Vanessa Constant of items
in Devizes Museum
(B,C,G–N) and Salisbury
Museum (A, D–F).]
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