CBA SMA\SMA 1998.PDF - Council for British Archaeology

Oxfordshire
interest because it seemed to define the highest area of the
hilltop as established by topographic survey in 1996.
Excavation revealed several pits and postholes but nothing
corresponding to the possible linear feature which was a
very weak anomaly and could have been an artefact of the
geophysics. The pottery from this trench included some
Romano-British sherds (possibly early), and some stamped
middle to late Iron Age types.
Trench 5
A trench measuring 10 x 10 m was located on a pair of very
distinctive circular anomalies identified by the AML as
being different to those created by storage pits. Excavation
revealed two solution pipes in the chalk bedrock filled with
clay with flints, similar to those found in previous years at
White Horse Hill and in Trench 3 at Segsbury (Lock and
Gosden 1997b; 73).
One point of interest about Trench 5 was the lack of features
within it, especially compared to the density within
Trenches 1,4 and 2. This could represent zoning within the
hillfort and suggest that the differences shown within the
geophysics are real rather than being a product of overlying
deposits masking features in the northern third of the
interior.
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Trench 6
Located to investigate a short linear anomaly curving around
the northern side of the eastern entrance, Trench 6 measured
10 x 5 m, Fig 11. Excavation revealed the rounded terminus
of a flat bottomed, steep sided ditch [6002] which appeared
to be a hornwork extending from the main ditch, presumably
with a corresponding extension to the rampart which has
now disappeared. The ditch was very different in profile
from the main ditch (compare Fig 12 and 15), being less than
a metre deep with a wide flat bottom, giving the appearance
of being unfinished. Romano-British pottery was present in
the upper fill [6003] and Iron Age material in the lower
levels and an apparent re-cut [6006 and 6007], suggesting
that the ditch was dug, partly filled and then re-cut during
the occupation of the hillfort. Further visual inspection of
the eastern entrance shows considerable topographic
evidence for the rampart continuing across the entrance so
as to block it. The apparent starting and then abandonment
of this enhancement of the original eastern entrance by the
addition of a curving hornwork could be associated with the
blocking of the entrance.
Fig 12. Segsbury Camp. Section across the eastern
entrance hornwork ditch.
Two gullies were also located within Trench 6, Fig 11.
Context [6009], a V-shaped gully tightly packed with clean
chalk rubble was either contemporary with or pre-dated the
large ditch. It also pre-dated the gully, [6004], running
approximately at right angles to it, which contained the
articulated skull, backbone and shoulder blades of a cow
placed within its fill. Based on differential vegetation
growth within the surrounding field, it would appear this
gully runs for a considerable distance eastwards from the
trench and the hillfort's eastern entrance.
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