Steve Thompson and Andrew B Powell
Wessex Archaeology, £15
ISBN 978-1911137047
Review Edward Biddulph
Any excavation carried out a stone’s throw from the Stonehenge World Heritage Site and some of its attendant monuments – Durrington Walls, Woodhenge, and, of course, the eponymous monument – is going to be special. The archaeology uncovered at the former military site at Durrington, comprising (among other features) two post-hole alignments, a Late Iron Age defensive ditch, and evidence of Roman-period settlement, is no exception. The post alignments formed part of the ‘web of interconnectivity’ through the ritual landscape. The Iron Age ditch followed the orientation of the postholes, hinting at continuity of landscape organisation. A bluestone disc found in one of the ditches of the later settlement could represent a prized object collected from Stonehenge in the Roman period.
The report contains other gems, including late glacial soil, a late Neolithic cremation burial, a sarsen block dumped into a Neolithic post-hole, and Roman-period ceramic discs that may have been used as toilet paper.
This is a useful and highly readable volume that adds to our knowledge of the enduring landscape of Stonehenge.
This review appeared in CA 340.
