140 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE © 
2002; Hearne and Heaton 1994; Hearne and Adam 
1999) and Eight Acre Field (Mudd 1995) where 
they are interpreted variously as pot boilers 
(Brossler et al. 2002) and as debris from 
metalworking (Hearne and Heaton 1994; Hearne 
and Adam 1999). At Eight Acre Field the burnt 
stone formed a metalled surface and was 
interpreted as a cooking area (Mudd 1995, 57). 
Whilst the assemblage of burnt stone from Latton 
is smaller than the assemblages from these sites, it 
does exhibit similarities, especially in distribution. 
The pottery assemblage from the _ ditches, 
particularly the north-eastern ditch terminals, and 
from the waterhole, includes imported material and 
has few components from a source in the immediate 
vicinity of the site. This may suggest that the site 
was of high status although a lack of metalwork and 
metalworking debris does not support this view. 
Similar sites, such as Thorny Down (Stone 1941), 
often produce fine metalwork. Concentrations of 
pottery sherds, wooden artefacts, burnt stone and 
animal bone in the fills of the ditch terminals and 
the waterhole, including at least two Deverel- 
Rimbury bucket-shaped urns, a wooden bowl, a dog 
mandible and three fragments of worked antler is 
suggestive of structured deposition. There may 
have been some textile production and the 
inhabitants may have engaged in feasting activity 
that involved deposition of pottery, burnt stone and 
animal bone in the ditch fills. 
Environmental and artefactual evidence from 
Latton tallies with evidence from many of the sites 
discussed above, where similar assemblages of 
pottery were found, although several of these sites 
revealed metalwork including a double looped 
spearhead from Thorny Down (Hawkes 1941), 
while others had better evidence of textile 
production. The overall impression is that the 
settlement at Latton was broadly equivalent to sites 
such as Down Farm, Thorny Down and South 
Lodge. 
Settlement Context 
Given the evidence, it is difficult to say whether 
the enclosure existed in a densely settled 
landscape or was relatively isolated. The nearest 
known Bronze Age activity is at Cotswold 
Community to the west (Granville Laws pers. 
comm.). A ring ditch to the south-west of the 
enclosure suggests early Bronze Age settlement in 
the area, while the gravel terraces and flood plain of 
the Churn valley would have made _ prime 
agricultural land. It would not be surprising 
therefore if future excavation revealed further 
evidence of middle Bronze Age settlement. 
The position of this distinctive kind of middle 
Bronze Age enclosure on the gravel terrace of a 
tributary of the Thames may be seen as unusual, 
given that the distribution of such sites is generally 
restricted to the uplands of Wessex, although this 
pattern may be due to differential preservation. Its 
situation may also be seen as interesting, since 
Bradley has argued for distinctive differences 
between the settlement patterns of the river gravels 
and those of the uplands (Bradley 1984). Ultimately, 
the middle Bronze Age was a time of agricultural 
and settlement intensification and in this sense the 
Latton Lands enclosure is not out of place. 
The Later Prehistoric Activity 
An unaccompanied crouched inhumation and two 
pits one of which contained human remains were 
tentatively assigned to this phase. The pits could 
belong to the middle or late Bronze Age, although 
neither contained datable artefacts. One of the pits 
contained a femur shaft and a cranial vault, both 
from an adult female. In the absence of clear dating 
evidence the inhumation can be seen as later 
prehistoric, but is not more closely dated. 
The Iron Age 
Scatters of pits and ditches lying predominantly to 
the north and north-west of the middle Bronze Age 
enclosure may have been of Iron Age date, which 
indicates the continuation of settlement and/or 
agricultural activity on the gravel terrace. 
The Medieval Period 
Field boundaries, possibly representing a series of 
paddocks, lay to the south of the middle Bronze 
Age enclosure, while ridge and furrow was present 
over the whole of the excavated area. Clearly the 
area was subject to intensive agricultural use during 
the medieval period. It seems likely that this 
activity is related to the medieval settlement of 
Latton. 
The Post-Medieval Period 
A rectangular ditched enclosure overlay the 
medieval field system and to the west of this a 
