| 
Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine, vol. 97 (2004), pp. 144-196 
Investigation of the Whitesheet Down Environs 
1989-90: Neolithic Causewayed Enclosure and 
Iron Age Settlement 
by Mick Rawlings,' Michael 7. Allen' and Frances Healy’ 
with contributions by Rosamund M.f. Cleal, M. Corney, Rowena Gale, Pat 
Hinton, D. McOmish, 7.M. Maitby, Elaine L. Morris and Robert G. Scaife 
The construction of a water pipeline across part of Wiltshire and Somerset enabled the investigation of a transect 
through the causewayed enclosure at Whitesheet Hill, sectioning the enclosure ditch and revealing several internal 
features. Other sites on and around Whitesheet Hill were also investigated including a Beaker period pit, two cross- 
ridge earthworks and an enclosed settlement of the Middle Iron Age. 
The earlier Neolithic date of the enclosure ditch was confirmed and a number of internal features were recorded. 
These included solution and tree hollows but also probable contemporary archaeological features. The ceramic 
assemblage indicated that the causewayed enclosure at Whitesheet Hill had a greater affinity with areas to the south 
and west (Hembury) than to the north and east (Windmill Hill) and an important molluscan sequence was recovered 
from the ditch which provides some comparisons with similar sites on Hambledon Hill and Maiden Castle. 
In the winter of 1989-90 Wessex Water plc 
constructed a 700mm underground pipeline from 
Codford, Wiltshire (ST 954400) to Ilchester, 
Somerset (ST 523223), a total distance of 61.5km. A 
continuous archaeological watching brief was 
maintained during construction and several sites 
were identified and recorded (Rawlings 1992; 
1995). 
Whitesheet Down is a small Middle Chalk 
downland block lying on the western scarp of 
Salisbury Plain (Figure 1). The Down is sited 
immediately north of the Vale of Wardour and the 
scarp slope overlooks the lower land of the Lias and 
Purbeck Beds/Oxford Clays to the west. At the local 
scale it is separated from the Salisbury Plain to the 
east by a deep, bifurcated dry valley. The Iron Age 
hillfort below the summit of Whitesheet Hill has 
views to the west over the clay vale. In contrast the 
Neolithic causewayed enclosure on the edge of the 
escarpment has views over the clay vale but it is 
sited at the head of a dry valley with views to the 
east down its axis. Colt Hoare noted that the 
causewayed enclosure, unlike the hillfort, is 
conspicuous from either west or east (Colt Hoare 
1812, 41). 
The hillfort on Whitesheet Hill forms part of a 
largely uninvestigated complex of monuments 
situated on a plateau of Middle Chalk (Figures 1 
and 2; see Corney and McOmish below). In 
crossing Whitesheet Hill the pipeline cut through 
three Scheduled Monuments: the earlier Neolithic 
causewayed enclosure on the western spur of 
Whitesheet Hill, and two linear cross-ridge 
earthworks, the Whitesheet Hill Linear and the 
Mere Down Linear (Figure 2). A Beaker pit was 
discovered to the east of the Mere Down Linear 
during this work, and an Iron Age site in 
Whitesheet Quarry (Figure 1). 
' Wessex Archaeology, Portway House, Old Sarum Park, Salisbury SP46EB * 20 The Green, Charlbury OX7 3QA 
