Abstract
THE experiment of the Prehistoric Society in undertaking excavation on an archaeological site in Wiltshire, hitherto known only from air survey, with the view of providing at the same time a training ground for young archaeologists (see NATURE, July 9, p. 65) has fully justified itself so far as concerns the archaeological results, which, after a month's excavation, have proved of considerable interest. The site selected was the lesser of two enclosures at Woodbury on the hill south of Salisbury. A test excavation had shown that it had been thickly inhabited at a period definitely belonging to the Early Iron Age. According to a preliminary report (The Times, July 20) not only did excavation confirm the existence of the pits inferred from the evidence of the air survey, but it also revealed others not so indicated. Further study of conditions affecting the two groups will no doubt prove of value in the future development of the technique of air photography. In addition to isolated pits and post-holes, there is a large group of intercommunicating shallow pits appearing on the photographs as what has come to be known as "the Great Dark Mark". Finds included a blue bead of the Early Iron Age and quantities of Early Iron Age pottery. No Romano-British remains were found. The pits were evidently for storage; and the excavators conclude that such pits, with their vertical sides, cannot be regarded, as hitherto, as pit-dwellings. The burnt material adduced as evidence of hearths, it has been shown at Woodbury by intensive study in situ, was not formed in the pits, but was thrown into them. The discovery of a similar enclosure on a hill above Harnham about a quarter of a mile away leads to the suggestion that the site now occupied by Salisbury was surrounded by a ring of such enclosures. There are others at Cockey Down and north-east of the aerodrome at Old Sarum. The complicated nature of the site will probably necessitate a second season's excavation, although the duration of the present term of digging will depend upon the funds available, towards which contributions are needed. These may be addressed to the Hon. Treasurer, Department of British and Medieval Antiquities, British Museum, Bloomsbury, London, W.C.I.
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Iron Age Site in Wiltshire. Nature 142, 202 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142202b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142202b0