92 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
track cuts the escarpment it is met by another 
holloway from the shrunken settlement of Little 
Town, forming the cross-roads element of the site. 
The possibility of this track also having a mid- 
Saxon date cannot be ruled out. If this is so and the 
burial is purposely situated on the cross-roads it 
makes, by later analogy, the possibility of execution 
all the more likely. 
Beyond Broad Town 
The Broad Town burial mirrors traits found at 
other Wessex sites, most notably that at 
Stonehenge. There an executed male in his early 
30s was found, probably supine, in a shallow grave 
with no finds (Pitts et al. 2002, 134). This burial also 
benefits from a radiocarbon determination of 
1359+-38 BP (OxA-9361) & 1490+-60 BP (OxA- 
9921), a weighted mean calibrates to a possible 
calendar date range of 600-690 cal AD (Bayliss, in 
Pitts et al. 2002,134). The grave is again situated at a 
prominent place, close to the hundred boundaries 
of Amesbury and Underditch (Reynolds and 
Semple, in Pitts et al. 2002,142). 
Another pertinent site is known at Tan Hill, 
overlooking the Vale of Pewsey, where a single 
unaccompanied burial was discovered in a pre- 
historic ditch. It was suggested at the time of 
discovery that the hands were tied behind the back, 
but again no dating evidence was present (Anon, 
1951, 228). This site is on a parish boundary, again in 
a very prominent position, and may well be Anglo- 
Saxon in date (Pollard and Reynolds, 2002, 175). 
The discovery of a single unaccompanied burial 
at Gomeldon also potentially fits into this picture. 
Discovered in 1936, the individual was buried in a 
shallow grave, having the appearance of being 
thrown in and was suggested by J.ES. Stone to be a 
possible hanging victim (Stone 1942,108). Again a 
prominent location appears important, with the 
individual interred close to the edge of the 
escarpment which overlooks the river Bourne. The 
burial is also just to the North-west of the original 
Winterbourne to Porton road and just under 200 m 
north of the parish boundary. 
Beyond Wiltshire 
Counties other than Wiltshire are beginning to 
present similar evidence. Reynolds has demon- 
strated that all known execution sites in Hampshire 
lie on hundred boundaries (1999, 108-9), while 
Martin Carver’s work at Sutton Hoo has shown that 
prominent sites of an earlier age became the focus of 
execution, during the formative phase of ‘Christian 
Kingship’ (1998, 142). The comparable dates of two 
of the burials described above suggest a trend in 
7th-century Wessex. This would appear to 
underpin the evidence from Sutton Hoo where 
execution sites also seem to have started in the 
seventh century (Carver 1998, 142). 
The Burial in its Landscape 
Context 
A picture of continuity in the landscape is arguable 
if consideration is given to archaeological finds and 
sites in the immediate area of the Broad Town 
Burial (fig 5). Evidence suggests that the escarp- 
ment has been the focus of human activity since the 
N 
i ¢) ee 
sy 
ee 
Kingsbridge 
Clyffe 
Pypard WE () | 
Sie 
eG) Seem eelidey 
Fig 5. Findspots in relation to the Hundred boundary between 
Kingsbridge and Selkley 
% Saxon Burial 
~ Roman/Saxon ? 
Burial 
Q Roman Pottery 
+ Saxon Pottery 
later prehistoric period. Ceramic finds include a 
carinated sherd similar to forms from All Cannings 
Cross (Goddard, 1919,353) of probable 5th century 
BC date. In addition, the Broad Town burial’s grave 
fill (above) and excavations at Cuff’s Corner 
(Clarke 2000) have produced sherds of Late Iron 
Age date. Substantial Romano-British sites are 
evidenced by ceramic scatters (Goddard, 1919,353, 
Clarke 2000), structures (Walters 2001,128,) and 
burials (Foster 2001,171). 
Romano-British burials are known from two 
locations, three in Broad Town Field (Goddard, 
1919,353), and nine ‘scattered’ near Cuff’s Corner 
(Goddard, 1913,227); all lay under substantial 
sarsen stones. While the three reported in Broad 
Town Field may well be Roman in date it is not 
unusual to find material from that period in graves 
up to the 6/7th Century AD (White,1988,160). This 
