NEOLITHIC OF THE WYLYE VALLEY 1: CORTON LONG BARROW 
69 
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Fig. 4 Land snail histogram 
and top of weathered chalk 
125+cm Chalk 
This buried soil is considerably thicker (at 38 cm) 
than those recorded under a number of other long 
barrows in Wessex: West Kennet (25cm); South 
Street (27cm); Horslip (22cm); Waylands Smithy II 
(12cm) and this is a matter we return to later. With 
some difficulty five small samples of the soil were 
retrieved from the auger for analysis of land snails 
and pollen. No artefacts were recovered. 
PALAEO-ENVIRONMENTAL 
ANALYSIS 
The main profile through the barrow (auger 4) 
which cored the mound and old land surface was 
sampled for palaeo-environmental data. This 
enabled the recording and recovery of a series of 
small samples from the buried soil. Eight very small 
samples (20g) were taken from the topsoil and 
mound material for magnetic susceptibility, but 
efforts were concentrated on obtaining five larger 
samples from the buried soil for land snails which 
were subsampled for magnetic susceptibility and 
pollen analysis. Five small samples (average 275g) 
were extracted using a dutch auger from the base of 
the mound and through the old land surface. As 
“much soil was removed as possible. 
Magnetic Susceptibility 
Samples were taken for magnetic susceptibility at 
100mm intervals through the profile and at closer 
intervals, where possible through the old land 
surface, to enable the creation of a magnetic 
susceptibility signature (Figure 3 inset, appendix 2 
and Table 1). Samples were air dried and 10g 
<2mm was measured using a Bartington MS2B 
meter and recorded as SI units 10° SI\Kg. 
The results show modern thin humic and 
calcareous topsoil under open ‘woodland’ (the 
barrow is covered with middle-aged beech trees and 
a variety of shrubs amongst a dense growth of 2 m 
high nettles) with a reading of only 16, below which 
the root-penetrated chalk mound gave very low 
results between 4 and 9 (ave 6.8). The base of the 
chalk mound, immediately above the buried soil 
showed a rise to 12, below which significantly 
enhanced readings of up to 58 were recorded in the 
buried soil. The buried soil showed typical 
enhancements in its upper profile, and the entire 
soil (except the soil and chalk at 80-85cm, and the 
weathered chalk below 122cm) averaged 38 SI 10-8 
SI\Kg. This magnetic susceptibility profile tends to 
confirm the presence of a complete soil profile 
although not recognised as such from the auger 
records. The high levels in the upper surface (58 SI 
10°8 SI\Kg) may be indicative of some burning on 
this surface. 
Land Snails 
The five small samples produced some shells from 
which a broad indication of the pre-monument 
landscape history could be gained. In general, 
relatively few shells were recovered, but when 
calculated as numbers per kilogram this was both 
acceptable and consistent with other buried soils. 
Although shell numbers are very low (due to the 
small quantity of soil obtained), they show striking 
and significant changes. In contrast to assemblages 
from buried soils under a number of other long 
