EXCAVATIONS AT THE BECKHAMPTON ENCLOSURE, AVENUE AND COVE, AVEBURY 



251 



Fig. 2. View from the terminal south-west along the length 

 of the enclosure ditch excavated in Trench 23. 



succeeded in places by a thick, compacted 

 secondary silt. Some sections of the ditch displayed 

 bands of finer material interlaced with coarser 

 rubble on the western (inner) side of the feature, 

 possibly indicating short periods of stabilization or 

 preserved annual banding, as noted at the Overton 

 Down experimental earthwork (Bell et al. 1996). 



Above this was a well developed soil horizon, 

 thickest in the centre and only occasionally 

 interrupted. The upper fill was of compact chalk 

 rubble within a clay loam. Some of the chalk 

 fragments were large and irregular and lay at a 

 variety of angles indicating rapid backfilling. 



A number of discrete deposits of brown loam, 

 some with charcoal or associated finds of animal 

 bone, pottery or flint, were discovered on the base 

 of the ditch. In the northern terminal was a fairly 

 extensive lens of loam and charcoal associated with 

 a spread of bone that included a cattle mandible, 

 rib and vertebra, a piece of burned sarsen and three 

 small sherds of highly decorated Grooved Ware. 

 Nearby was a deposit comprising three scapula (of 

 pig or ovicaprid), an antler, a flint blade and 

 horncore. Further deposits of 'fresh' bone occurred 

 throughout the length of the exposed ditch (Figure 

 3). 



The same pattern of fills and overall morphology 

 was noted in the segments of enclosure ditch 

 excavated in trenches 22 and 24. Here narrow, 

 undug causeways were recorded between pit 

 segments, and in each case finds of antler were made 

 at the base of the final backfill material, most likely 

 placed deposits. 



The Avenue 



Trench 22 was located to investigate the intervening 

 pair of Avenue stone holes between those excavated 

 in 1999 (Trench 10) and the one remaining standing 

 Avenue stone, 'Eve'. This corresponded to a pair of 

 stones that had been marked by Stukeley upon his 

 1724 drawing of the Cove as 'thrown down and 

 half buryed' (Ucko er al. 1991, pi. 60). Although 

 no geophysical anomalies could be identified in this 

 area on the pre-excavation survey, upon removal of 



1 Trench 23 



• 



Animal bone 



• 



3+ anim 



al bones 



d 



Pottery 





Fig. 3. The enclosure ditch and primary deposits in Trench 23. 



