Freelancer
Jedi
That cube is really great!
:)
It's also interesting that this perspective view of the cube forms a nice hexagon (6D)...
:)
It's also interesting that this perspective view of the cube forms a nice hexagon (6D)...
2010 Crop Circles
- Thread starter Vulcan59
- Start date
doublea1535
Jedi Council Member
Yea its amazing what a couple of guys with boards on ropes and a free night can do ;)anart said:Sheesh! Look at the patterns 'woven' into that crop...
mada85
The Cosmic Force
Very interesting 'cubic hexagonal circle'! What comes to mind is: the surrounding hexagon represents planetary life, the atomic number of carbon being six. The three crosses represent 3D. The small cube at the centre can be seen as coming out or going in, which suggests properties of 4D – 'through the looking glass' as the Cs once described it – representing the potential for growing our connection to 4D. This connection being somewhere at the centre of our being and hard to grasp with 3D thinking.
The photo above shows the location of the circle. The first thing I thought of was that the placing of it is as though it has just been born. Perhaps it's some weird psychological program on my part :/ but I saw the innermost part of the 'bay' as the opening from which the symbol has just been born. Further, the field reminds me of the sea, with the hillock looking like land which suggested to me the symbolism of birth into the waters. When a being has just been born, it is full of potential, pregnant with possibilities, waiting to be activated by knowledge.
The central figure consists of 19 cubes, the number of years in the metonic cycle of the moon.
Freelancer
Jedi
:O
It's amazing...
Looks like some weird tesseract net (4D cube)!
It's amazing...
Looks like some weird tesseract net (4D cube)!
Tigersoap said:
I agree. There's been some great ones this year, mixed with "iffy" ones.
The thing about the really "WOW" crop circles for me is that, besides trying to interpret them (there can be many "correct" interpretations, or partly correct, as there are so many levels to the symbolism) they really have a big emotional impact. You know, they fill me with awe and wonder, and give me a tremendous aesthetic satisfaction/fulfillment. Some really great artists (not to mention mathematicians) up there in 6th density! ;)
what is it with the hill forts? this year just about every circle has been next to a hill fort
I made this list
Old Sarum, nr Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Old Sarum (Latin: Sorbiodunum) is the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury, in England. The site contains evidence of human habitation as early as 3000 BC. Old Sarum is mentioned in some of the earliest records in the country. It sits on a hill about two miles north of modern Salisbury.
Old Sarum was originally a hill fort strategically placed on the conjunction of two trade routes and the River Avon, Hampshire. The hill fort is broadly oval in shape. 400 m (1300 feet) in length and 360 m (1200 feet) in width, it consists of a bank and ditch with an entrance on the eastern side
Stonehenge, nr Amesbury, Wiltshire.
Yarnbury Castle, nr Winterbourne Stoke, Wiltshire.
Bronze-Age Enclosure
First occupation of this site was possibly around the 7th - 5th centuries BC, when a circular enclosure of 4ha was built on top of the hill. This bronze-age fort was protected by a single, timber-revetted rampart fronted by a deep v-shaped ditch, with a simple entrance on the west.
Iron-Age Hillfort
In the 1st century BC, the fort was expanded to 10.5ha by the addition of roughly circular earthworks, consisting of two massive banks and ditches, in the order of 7.6m high/deep, with traces of a third external rampart. This fort was provided with a formidable inturned entrance passage, 9m wide and with complex outworks on the east. There is a small, triangular enclosure outside the fort to the west, which may be Roman.
Wilton Windmill, nr Wilton, Wiltshire.
The discovery of a number of skeletons at Crofton in 1892 by JW Brooke was later used to substantiate a local battlefield location. An account of the battle of Bedwyn was published by local historian Maurice Adams in 1903.[3] However only excavation of these graves will confirm if they contain battlefield victims or not.
Brooke recorded that “I cannot assign any period to them, but the field over them is paved with flint weapons. On one visit I observed children building miniature castles with human femur and tibiae.” In a letter to Maurice Adams, BH Cunningham described the graves, 5 to 7 in number, “radiating from a common centre like the spokes of a wheel.” Unfortunately he had made no notes of his finds, and was writing from memory. Mrs M E Cunnington’s study of Saxon grave sites in Wiltshire noted that there was no evidence to support the belief that the Crofton site contained Saxon graves.[4] Nearby finds consisted only of La Tene pot earthware, from the Neolithic period. As the graves are situated within the site of a Neolithic Causewayed camp, this is not surprising. Maurice Adams would not have known about the Crofton camp. It was discovered by aerial survey in 1976.
Silbury Hill, Nr Avebury. Wiltshire.
Silbury Hill, part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury in Wiltshire (which includes the West Kennet long barrow), is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the world's largest. On a base covering over 2 hectares (5 acres), it rises 39.6m (130ft) high.
Westwoods, nr Lockeridge,
The area has extensive evidence of Neolithic settlement and a Bronze Age burial site was discovered behind the school in the 19th century. Field enclosures on White Hill (a ridge above the village) provide evidence of Roman occupation probably linked to the nearby fortress town of Cunetio. One possible derivation of the name is from the Old English composite word loc(a)-hrycg meaning "a ridge marked by enclosure(s)".
The area has extensive evidence of Neolithic settlement and a Bronze Age burial site was discovered behind the school in the 19th century. Field enclosures on White Hill (a ridge above the village) provide evidence of Roman occupation probably linked to the nearby fortress town of Cunetio. One possible derivation of the name is from the Old English composite word loc(a)-hrycg meaning "a ridge marked by enclosure(s)".
At the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, Lockeridge was owned by Durand of Gloucester and is described as follows: Durand himself holds LOCKERIDGE. Almær held it TRE, and it paid geld for 2 hides. There is land for 1 plough. Of this 1 hide is in demesne. There is 1 villan and 2 bordars with 1 slave, and 1-acre (4,000 m2) of meadow, and 12 acres (49,000 m2) of pasture and 6 acres (24,000 m2) of woodland. It was worth 40s ; now 30s. These two late anglo-Saxon estates are held to be linked to the cluster of houses at Lockeridge dean at the southern end of the village, and the Eighteenth Century Lockeridge House at the northern end. Lockeridge House is adjacent to Piper's Lane, remnant of a Roman Road.
Building took place between the two Saxon settlements in 12th Century on the order of the Knights Templar who acquired one of the estates between 1141 and 1143. In 1155-6 it acquired land in Rockley to build a Preceptory. Lockeridge is therefore something rare in Britain, namely a planned Templar village. The collapse of the nearby settlement of Shaws as a result of the Plague may have triggered growth as Lockeridge was situated at an intersection of a major east-west route (now the A4) and a crossing of the Pewsey Downs. The Templar link explains the absence (rare in Wiltshire villages) of a Church.
Liddington Castle was constructed in four stages, likely beginning during the very late Bronze Age / early Iron Age, 7-500 B.C. In the first instance a simple soil rampart was dug and backed with a wooden palisade, then subsequent developments, possibly 5-300 B.C., increased the size of the rampart by incorporating chalk blocks into it, culminating in a final heightening some centuries later. The dating of this last stage is very imprecise, simply Iron Age, but it could possibly have occurred as late as the Roman, even the post-Roman era. Finds of pottery from these times suggest that the fort may have been re-occupied in some form, adding weight, but still no evidence whatsoever, to the Badon Hill theory.
There is, however, plenty of evidence for the earlier occupation of the fort; surveys have revealed a plethora of post holes, pits and gullies. Most notable of all are the foundations of what may have been a great roundhouse, which, at 18 metres in diameter, is by far the largest such example found amongst other forts in the region. It could have been a shrine of some sort, but is most likely to have been the home of a person of high status. Its position within the fort seems to indicate that this was the case, as it has pride of place towards the centre of the fort, in the north-western portion, just above where a road may have passed, if we assume that one existed, linking the western and eastern entrances in a broadly straight line. Despite this activity, the archeology does not indicate that the fort was in use for long periods of time, nor was it ever densely populated, rather sporadic occupation is implied. Finds of pottery are most prevalent at the assumed foundation of the fort, 7-500 B.C., but with the exception of the later Roman pottery finds, none have been found that date later than 400 B.C. There is, regrettably, plenty of evidence for activity inside the fort from a much later era; flint quarrying took place between 1896 and 1900, and this has left its mark on the fort and played havoc with the condition of the south-western rampart.
Liddington Castle, nr Swindon, Wiltshire
Outside of Liddington Castle and overlooked by it, there are traces of what appear to be other forts which, due to their proximity, may have been intimately connected to it. One is 500 metres to the north (possibly including a double rampart) and the other near Chiseldon almost two miles to the west, dating to and enclosing an area of approximately Late Middle to Late Iron Age and 6 acres, and Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age and 20 acres respectively. Both of these sites, however, have been completely flattened by ploughing and only faint outlines of them can be seen with aerial photography.
Codford St Peter, nr Warminster, Wiltshire.
Codford Circle: Iron Age Pits And Feasting
Codford Circle is a simple univalate, almost perfectly circular, hilltop enclosure about 200m in diameter and encompassing about 3.6 ha. It lies on the southern edge of Salisbury Plain overlooking the Wylye Valley to the south and the small Chitterne Brook to the west. It is, in many ways, an unimpressive monument. In 1804, Colt Hoare visited the site, describing it as “a nearly complete circle, the area of which contains above nine acres, and the circuit amounts to three furlongs and one hundred and ten yards. It is surrounded by a neatly formed vallum and fosse, which, together with the area, have been much defaced by the plough.” He goes on to say that “the smallness of the enclosure, as well as the slightness of the ramparts, evidently contradict the idea of its either having been made or used for military purposes; it has no signs of any entrance, nor is the ditch within, as we frequently find to be the case in the earthen works appropriated to religious purposes
This rather simple, unremarkable monument has received little attention since 1804, and it would have remained so had it not been for a large black and white OS aerial photograph (c. 1978) in private hands that was put on display during a local village archaeological day. The enclosure, ploughed on the interior and up to its grassy bank on the exterior, showed up clearly, but more significant was a series of remarkable and previously unrecorded clear soil marks indicating an interrupted, possible oval circuit of pits and/or ditch segments inside Codford Circle, and another arc of pits outside the south-east entrance. Internally these constituted two arcs, one to the north-west and the other to the south-east, complemented by a third exterior arc of pits outside the south-east entrance. This inner enclosure and possible outwork had never previously been noticed or recorded.
These pit arcs were reminiscent of Early Neolithic causewayed enclosures or Later Neolithic henges. A possible causewayed enclosure is known at Scatchbury (c. 15km further down the valley), and henges are known in the vicinity; one lies in the Wylye Valley floor (Sutton Veny) and another possible example is located on the downland (near Upton Lovell).
Small-scale excavations were conducted to examine the nature of the hilltop enclosure, and to find and examine a length of the apparent interrupted inner circuit.
The enclosure
Excavation of the low (0.4m high) bank and entirely plough-infilled external ditch revealed a steep almost V-shaped ditch 4m wide and 2.1m deep, lying below a natural bluff upon which the surviving bank sealed a thick (0.3m) buried soil. Although plenty of worked flint and animal bone were recovered, there was very little pottery and, although undiagnostic, this was probably Iron Age. The form of the ditch was unlike a Later Bronze Age hilltop enclosure and more in keeping with the supposition that this was indeed an Iron Age ‘hillfort’. Only one entrance is known, in the south-east, presently used by the farmer, and which has been considered to be modern. However, survey by English Heritage conducted by David Field (with volunteers from the Codford Local History Society) showed this to be the only clear interruption of the bank circuit, although there are hints of a second entrance on the northwestern side. Unlike at the south-eastern entrance, the infilled ditch is just visible and continuous around the rest of the circuit. Inside the northwestern portion of the bank, where the OS aerial photograph appeared to show an interrupted ditch or pits, the survey revealed an internal length of shallow remnant ditch.
Pits
The main interest of our research was the potential existence of the possible interrupted ditch/pit circuit. Privately-funded excavations were limited to small keyhole trenches, so initial exploration was undertaken by simple auger transects to find the potential features. In most holes, chalk was reached under a shallow ploughsoil, but very soon two augerholes of much greater depth clearly indicated one of the segments and it was not necessary to bottom the feature.
A 15m long trench was stripped crossing the feature found by augering. This targeted excavation revealed the top of a large oval pit (3.6m x 2.4m) filled with a typical ploughwash with burnt and worked flint. Below this was 1.2m of chalk rubble containing many worked flints and animal bones, some pottery and at least two large chalk loomweights. This backfilled chalk sealed a 0.4m deep greasy black and highly organic charcoal-rich deposit containing large quantities of crudely worked and burnt flint, animal bones (especially burnt ribs) and sherds of Early Iron Age pottery. On the base of the shaft-like pit, at a depth of 2.5m, were several placed burnt sarsen boulders. Excavation within the opposite side of the enclosure (on the line of the slight ditch surveyed by David Field) revealed the top of another comparable pit or ditch terminal which was not fully excavated due to time constraints. Nevertheless, the same sequence of flint-filled upper ploughwash over chalk rubble was present.
So, contrary to original expectations, this was a typically Iron Age enclosure, but there was nothing typical about the internal feature or its fill.
Feasting and fire
This evidence seems to have no parallel on the chalk of southern England, and if the single excavated example is representative, it indicates a series of at least 34 pits in addition to longer ditch segments.
The basal deposit of the pit seems to represent the discard of one or more large Iron Age ‘barbecues’ at which beef and lamb ribs seem to have been an important constituent. Feasting may not be unknown in the Early Iron Age, but the disposal of the waste in 2.5m deep pits apparently excavated for this discard and then rapidly backfilled is unusual to say the least. Although the chalk rubble contained artefacts it was essentially very clean, certainly in stark contrast with the artefact rich black ‘barbecue deposit’. This seems to imply a deliberate sequence of events that included the digging of at a least one large pit, the dumping of food-related waste and its deliberate sealing with clean chalk backfill. Whether such activity took place during normal settlement practices or represents more ritualistic and ceremonial feasting event(s) we cannot say. However, while we may suggest ritual feasting and other sacred activities, a cautionary note was clearly presented by one of the present day uses of the site. The conspicuous hilltop earthwork provides an obvious rendezvous point. One regular meeting is of that of the local shoot, which often concludes in a congregation in Codford Circle around a permanently installed trestle table. Here the keen fieldworker can find plenty of evidence of conspicuous consumption and the imbibing of ‘ceremonial’ beverages, in the form of burnt animal bones, corks and discarded wine bottles - evidence that only survives for a few days before it is ‘ceremoniously’ removed and discarded elsewhere, to reside in a local community midden! Here is another clear example of the persistence of place.
Having discovered this unusual site, additional work is planned in an attempt to further elucidate its nature and use. Its location on the edge of Salisbury Plain, with commanding views toward Yarnbury and the interior of the Plain as well as over the Wylye Valley requires consideration as does its chronological position. We are grateful to English Heritage who have started this programme of additional work by their survey of the site, and we know of other aerial photographs from which further data can be transcribed to enhance this evidence. Apart from highly targeted small-scale excavation, we hope ultimately to be able to review results of other surveys such as geophysics and fieldwalking, to complement the data we already have.
Stoney Littleton Long Barrow, Nr Wellow. Somerset.
Walbury Hill, nr Combe, Berkshire.
Walbury Hill is the highest point in the South East England region of the UK at 297 metres (974 ft) above sea level.
It is situated on the border between the civil parishes of Inkpen and Combe in southwestern Berkshire (the latter formerly in Hampshire). It is close to the Hampshire border and 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) southeast of Hungerford, the closest town. On its summit is the Iron Age hill fort of Walbury Camp.
Chirton Bottom, nr Urchfont,
Four bowl-barrows, of which three lie near the eastern parish boundary immediately south of the Ridge Way and a fourth to the north of it above Conock, indicate prehistoric activity in the parish.
Vale of Pewsey. nr Oare. Wiltshire.
Giant’s Grave, a spur of Martinsell Hill fortified as an iron age promontory fort, towers above Oare and Rainscombe,
Hawton, nr Newark. Nottinghamshire.
Field
next to iron age and Roman earthworks near village of Hawton, near Newark
White Sheet Hill, Nr Mere, Wiltshire
The hill is also the site of a neolithic causeway camp and barrows, and an Iron Age hill fort.
St Martin's Chapel, Nr Chisbury, Wiltshire.
An Iron Age hillfort which was later occupied during the Roman period. The hillfort is 14 acres in size, with two, or, in some places, three sets of banks and ditch defenses. Iron Age beads were found in the centre of the site, near later Roman pottery.
here has been a settlement in the vicinity for over 4,000 years.[1] The remains of a Roman fort were unearthed in the middle of the 18th century at Slack near Outlane, just west of the town.[2] Castle Hill, a major landmark of the town, was also the site of an Iron Age hill fort.
Sutton Bank, North Yorkshire.
The hill is the site of one of the most important prehistoric monuments in the region: a massive hillfort built in the Iron Age, around 400 BC.
Danebury Hill, nr Nether Wallop. Hampshire.
Danebury Iron Age hill fort is 2500 years old. It is a nationally important Scheduled Ancient Monument and also a Site of Special Scientific Interest... its also a great place for kite flying!
Cley Hill, nr Warminster, Wiltshire.
Cley Hill - Sturford near Warminster.
The location of an iron age hill fort about 300 BC this single banked hill has two bronze age round barrows on the 17 acre spine of the hill. One of these is silhoueted for miles. Cley hill is also well known for UFO sightings or maybe it is just the outline of the barrow above the hill?
I made this list
Old Sarum, nr Salisbury, Wiltshire.
Old Sarum (Latin: Sorbiodunum) is the site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury, in England. The site contains evidence of human habitation as early as 3000 BC. Old Sarum is mentioned in some of the earliest records in the country. It sits on a hill about two miles north of modern Salisbury.
Old Sarum was originally a hill fort strategically placed on the conjunction of two trade routes and the River Avon, Hampshire. The hill fort is broadly oval in shape. 400 m (1300 feet) in length and 360 m (1200 feet) in width, it consists of a bank and ditch with an entrance on the eastern side
Stonehenge, nr Amesbury, Wiltshire.
Yarnbury Castle, nr Winterbourne Stoke, Wiltshire.
Bronze-Age Enclosure
First occupation of this site was possibly around the 7th - 5th centuries BC, when a circular enclosure of 4ha was built on top of the hill. This bronze-age fort was protected by a single, timber-revetted rampart fronted by a deep v-shaped ditch, with a simple entrance on the west.
Iron-Age Hillfort
In the 1st century BC, the fort was expanded to 10.5ha by the addition of roughly circular earthworks, consisting of two massive banks and ditches, in the order of 7.6m high/deep, with traces of a third external rampart. This fort was provided with a formidable inturned entrance passage, 9m wide and with complex outworks on the east. There is a small, triangular enclosure outside the fort to the west, which may be Roman.
Wilton Windmill, nr Wilton, Wiltshire.
The discovery of a number of skeletons at Crofton in 1892 by JW Brooke was later used to substantiate a local battlefield location. An account of the battle of Bedwyn was published by local historian Maurice Adams in 1903.[3] However only excavation of these graves will confirm if they contain battlefield victims or not.
Brooke recorded that “I cannot assign any period to them, but the field over them is paved with flint weapons. On one visit I observed children building miniature castles with human femur and tibiae.” In a letter to Maurice Adams, BH Cunningham described the graves, 5 to 7 in number, “radiating from a common centre like the spokes of a wheel.” Unfortunately he had made no notes of his finds, and was writing from memory. Mrs M E Cunnington’s study of Saxon grave sites in Wiltshire noted that there was no evidence to support the belief that the Crofton site contained Saxon graves.[4] Nearby finds consisted only of La Tene pot earthware, from the Neolithic period. As the graves are situated within the site of a Neolithic Causewayed camp, this is not surprising. Maurice Adams would not have known about the Crofton camp. It was discovered by aerial survey in 1976.
Silbury Hill, Nr Avebury. Wiltshire.
Silbury Hill, part of the complex of Neolithic monuments around Avebury in Wiltshire (which includes the West Kennet long barrow), is the tallest prehistoric man-made mound in Europe and one of the world's largest. On a base covering over 2 hectares (5 acres), it rises 39.6m (130ft) high.
Westwoods, nr Lockeridge,
The area has extensive evidence of Neolithic settlement and a Bronze Age burial site was discovered behind the school in the 19th century. Field enclosures on White Hill (a ridge above the village) provide evidence of Roman occupation probably linked to the nearby fortress town of Cunetio. One possible derivation of the name is from the Old English composite word loc(a)-hrycg meaning "a ridge marked by enclosure(s)".
The area has extensive evidence of Neolithic settlement and a Bronze Age burial site was discovered behind the school in the 19th century. Field enclosures on White Hill (a ridge above the village) provide evidence of Roman occupation probably linked to the nearby fortress town of Cunetio. One possible derivation of the name is from the Old English composite word loc(a)-hrycg meaning "a ridge marked by enclosure(s)".
At the time of the Domesday Book of 1086, Lockeridge was owned by Durand of Gloucester and is described as follows: Durand himself holds LOCKERIDGE. Almær held it TRE, and it paid geld for 2 hides. There is land for 1 plough. Of this 1 hide is in demesne. There is 1 villan and 2 bordars with 1 slave, and 1-acre (4,000 m2) of meadow, and 12 acres (49,000 m2) of pasture and 6 acres (24,000 m2) of woodland. It was worth 40s ; now 30s. These two late anglo-Saxon estates are held to be linked to the cluster of houses at Lockeridge dean at the southern end of the village, and the Eighteenth Century Lockeridge House at the northern end. Lockeridge House is adjacent to Piper's Lane, remnant of a Roman Road.
Building took place between the two Saxon settlements in 12th Century on the order of the Knights Templar who acquired one of the estates between 1141 and 1143. In 1155-6 it acquired land in Rockley to build a Preceptory. Lockeridge is therefore something rare in Britain, namely a planned Templar village. The collapse of the nearby settlement of Shaws as a result of the Plague may have triggered growth as Lockeridge was situated at an intersection of a major east-west route (now the A4) and a crossing of the Pewsey Downs. The Templar link explains the absence (rare in Wiltshire villages) of a Church.
Liddington Castle was constructed in four stages, likely beginning during the very late Bronze Age / early Iron Age, 7-500 B.C. In the first instance a simple soil rampart was dug and backed with a wooden palisade, then subsequent developments, possibly 5-300 B.C., increased the size of the rampart by incorporating chalk blocks into it, culminating in a final heightening some centuries later. The dating of this last stage is very imprecise, simply Iron Age, but it could possibly have occurred as late as the Roman, even the post-Roman era. Finds of pottery from these times suggest that the fort may have been re-occupied in some form, adding weight, but still no evidence whatsoever, to the Badon Hill theory.
There is, however, plenty of evidence for the earlier occupation of the fort; surveys have revealed a plethora of post holes, pits and gullies. Most notable of all are the foundations of what may have been a great roundhouse, which, at 18 metres in diameter, is by far the largest such example found amongst other forts in the region. It could have been a shrine of some sort, but is most likely to have been the home of a person of high status. Its position within the fort seems to indicate that this was the case, as it has pride of place towards the centre of the fort, in the north-western portion, just above where a road may have passed, if we assume that one existed, linking the western and eastern entrances in a broadly straight line. Despite this activity, the archeology does not indicate that the fort was in use for long periods of time, nor was it ever densely populated, rather sporadic occupation is implied. Finds of pottery are most prevalent at the assumed foundation of the fort, 7-500 B.C., but with the exception of the later Roman pottery finds, none have been found that date later than 400 B.C. There is, regrettably, plenty of evidence for activity inside the fort from a much later era; flint quarrying took place between 1896 and 1900, and this has left its mark on the fort and played havoc with the condition of the south-western rampart.
Liddington Castle, nr Swindon, Wiltshire
Outside of Liddington Castle and overlooked by it, there are traces of what appear to be other forts which, due to their proximity, may have been intimately connected to it. One is 500 metres to the north (possibly including a double rampart) and the other near Chiseldon almost two miles to the west, dating to and enclosing an area of approximately Late Middle to Late Iron Age and 6 acres, and Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age and 20 acres respectively. Both of these sites, however, have been completely flattened by ploughing and only faint outlines of them can be seen with aerial photography.
Codford St Peter, nr Warminster, Wiltshire.
Codford Circle: Iron Age Pits And Feasting
Codford Circle is a simple univalate, almost perfectly circular, hilltop enclosure about 200m in diameter and encompassing about 3.6 ha. It lies on the southern edge of Salisbury Plain overlooking the Wylye Valley to the south and the small Chitterne Brook to the west. It is, in many ways, an unimpressive monument. In 1804, Colt Hoare visited the site, describing it as “a nearly complete circle, the area of which contains above nine acres, and the circuit amounts to three furlongs and one hundred and ten yards. It is surrounded by a neatly formed vallum and fosse, which, together with the area, have been much defaced by the plough.” He goes on to say that “the smallness of the enclosure, as well as the slightness of the ramparts, evidently contradict the idea of its either having been made or used for military purposes; it has no signs of any entrance, nor is the ditch within, as we frequently find to be the case in the earthen works appropriated to religious purposes
This rather simple, unremarkable monument has received little attention since 1804, and it would have remained so had it not been for a large black and white OS aerial photograph (c. 1978) in private hands that was put on display during a local village archaeological day. The enclosure, ploughed on the interior and up to its grassy bank on the exterior, showed up clearly, but more significant was a series of remarkable and previously unrecorded clear soil marks indicating an interrupted, possible oval circuit of pits and/or ditch segments inside Codford Circle, and another arc of pits outside the south-east entrance. Internally these constituted two arcs, one to the north-west and the other to the south-east, complemented by a third exterior arc of pits outside the south-east entrance. This inner enclosure and possible outwork had never previously been noticed or recorded.
These pit arcs were reminiscent of Early Neolithic causewayed enclosures or Later Neolithic henges. A possible causewayed enclosure is known at Scatchbury (c. 15km further down the valley), and henges are known in the vicinity; one lies in the Wylye Valley floor (Sutton Veny) and another possible example is located on the downland (near Upton Lovell).
Small-scale excavations were conducted to examine the nature of the hilltop enclosure, and to find and examine a length of the apparent interrupted inner circuit.
The enclosure
Excavation of the low (0.4m high) bank and entirely plough-infilled external ditch revealed a steep almost V-shaped ditch 4m wide and 2.1m deep, lying below a natural bluff upon which the surviving bank sealed a thick (0.3m) buried soil. Although plenty of worked flint and animal bone were recovered, there was very little pottery and, although undiagnostic, this was probably Iron Age. The form of the ditch was unlike a Later Bronze Age hilltop enclosure and more in keeping with the supposition that this was indeed an Iron Age ‘hillfort’. Only one entrance is known, in the south-east, presently used by the farmer, and which has been considered to be modern. However, survey by English Heritage conducted by David Field (with volunteers from the Codford Local History Society) showed this to be the only clear interruption of the bank circuit, although there are hints of a second entrance on the northwestern side. Unlike at the south-eastern entrance, the infilled ditch is just visible and continuous around the rest of the circuit. Inside the northwestern portion of the bank, where the OS aerial photograph appeared to show an interrupted ditch or pits, the survey revealed an internal length of shallow remnant ditch.
Pits
The main interest of our research was the potential existence of the possible interrupted ditch/pit circuit. Privately-funded excavations were limited to small keyhole trenches, so initial exploration was undertaken by simple auger transects to find the potential features. In most holes, chalk was reached under a shallow ploughsoil, but very soon two augerholes of much greater depth clearly indicated one of the segments and it was not necessary to bottom the feature.
A 15m long trench was stripped crossing the feature found by augering. This targeted excavation revealed the top of a large oval pit (3.6m x 2.4m) filled with a typical ploughwash with burnt and worked flint. Below this was 1.2m of chalk rubble containing many worked flints and animal bones, some pottery and at least two large chalk loomweights. This backfilled chalk sealed a 0.4m deep greasy black and highly organic charcoal-rich deposit containing large quantities of crudely worked and burnt flint, animal bones (especially burnt ribs) and sherds of Early Iron Age pottery. On the base of the shaft-like pit, at a depth of 2.5m, were several placed burnt sarsen boulders. Excavation within the opposite side of the enclosure (on the line of the slight ditch surveyed by David Field) revealed the top of another comparable pit or ditch terminal which was not fully excavated due to time constraints. Nevertheless, the same sequence of flint-filled upper ploughwash over chalk rubble was present.
So, contrary to original expectations, this was a typically Iron Age enclosure, but there was nothing typical about the internal feature or its fill.
Feasting and fire
This evidence seems to have no parallel on the chalk of southern England, and if the single excavated example is representative, it indicates a series of at least 34 pits in addition to longer ditch segments.
The basal deposit of the pit seems to represent the discard of one or more large Iron Age ‘barbecues’ at which beef and lamb ribs seem to have been an important constituent. Feasting may not be unknown in the Early Iron Age, but the disposal of the waste in 2.5m deep pits apparently excavated for this discard and then rapidly backfilled is unusual to say the least. Although the chalk rubble contained artefacts it was essentially very clean, certainly in stark contrast with the artefact rich black ‘barbecue deposit’. This seems to imply a deliberate sequence of events that included the digging of at a least one large pit, the dumping of food-related waste and its deliberate sealing with clean chalk backfill. Whether such activity took place during normal settlement practices or represents more ritualistic and ceremonial feasting event(s) we cannot say. However, while we may suggest ritual feasting and other sacred activities, a cautionary note was clearly presented by one of the present day uses of the site. The conspicuous hilltop earthwork provides an obvious rendezvous point. One regular meeting is of that of the local shoot, which often concludes in a congregation in Codford Circle around a permanently installed trestle table. Here the keen fieldworker can find plenty of evidence of conspicuous consumption and the imbibing of ‘ceremonial’ beverages, in the form of burnt animal bones, corks and discarded wine bottles - evidence that only survives for a few days before it is ‘ceremoniously’ removed and discarded elsewhere, to reside in a local community midden! Here is another clear example of the persistence of place.
Having discovered this unusual site, additional work is planned in an attempt to further elucidate its nature and use. Its location on the edge of Salisbury Plain, with commanding views toward Yarnbury and the interior of the Plain as well as over the Wylye Valley requires consideration as does its chronological position. We are grateful to English Heritage who have started this programme of additional work by their survey of the site, and we know of other aerial photographs from which further data can be transcribed to enhance this evidence. Apart from highly targeted small-scale excavation, we hope ultimately to be able to review results of other surveys such as geophysics and fieldwalking, to complement the data we already have.
Stoney Littleton Long Barrow, Nr Wellow. Somerset.
Walbury Hill, nr Combe, Berkshire.
Walbury Hill is the highest point in the South East England region of the UK at 297 metres (974 ft) above sea level.
It is situated on the border between the civil parishes of Inkpen and Combe in southwestern Berkshire (the latter formerly in Hampshire). It is close to the Hampshire border and 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) southeast of Hungerford, the closest town. On its summit is the Iron Age hill fort of Walbury Camp.
Chirton Bottom, nr Urchfont,
Four bowl-barrows, of which three lie near the eastern parish boundary immediately south of the Ridge Way and a fourth to the north of it above Conock, indicate prehistoric activity in the parish.
Vale of Pewsey. nr Oare. Wiltshire.
Giant’s Grave, a spur of Martinsell Hill fortified as an iron age promontory fort, towers above Oare and Rainscombe,
Hawton, nr Newark. Nottinghamshire.
Field
next to iron age and Roman earthworks near village of Hawton, near Newark
White Sheet Hill, Nr Mere, Wiltshire
The hill is also the site of a neolithic causeway camp and barrows, and an Iron Age hill fort.
St Martin's Chapel, Nr Chisbury, Wiltshire.
An Iron Age hillfort which was later occupied during the Roman period. The hillfort is 14 acres in size, with two, or, in some places, three sets of banks and ditch defenses. Iron Age beads were found in the centre of the site, near later Roman pottery.
here has been a settlement in the vicinity for over 4,000 years.[1] The remains of a Roman fort were unearthed in the middle of the 18th century at Slack near Outlane, just west of the town.[2] Castle Hill, a major landmark of the town, was also the site of an Iron Age hill fort.
Sutton Bank, North Yorkshire.
The hill is the site of one of the most important prehistoric monuments in the region: a massive hillfort built in the Iron Age, around 400 BC.
Danebury Hill, nr Nether Wallop. Hampshire.
Danebury Iron Age hill fort is 2500 years old. It is a nationally important Scheduled Ancient Monument and also a Site of Special Scientific Interest... its also a great place for kite flying!
Cley Hill, nr Warminster, Wiltshire.
Cley Hill - Sturford near Warminster.
The location of an iron age hill fort about 300 BC this single banked hill has two bronze age round barrows on the 17 acre spine of the hill. One of these is silhoueted for miles. Cley hill is also well known for UFO sightings or maybe it is just the outline of the barrow above the hill?
