INVESTIGATION OF THE WHITESHEET DOWN ENVIRONS 1989-90 171 
because local vegetation provided a more suitable habitat. 
Although a greater percentage of woodland may be 
indicated by the high proportion of pigs represented 
and the correspondingly low levels of sheep, which 
prefer open grazing, the 
environmental evidence (below) does not confirm 
this, although woodland products (pigs, hazlenuts, 
and possibly pignut tubers) are abundant in some of 
the interior features in particular. Exploitation of 
woodland and/or woodland clearances is certainly 
reflected at Whitesheet Hill. 
e) The differences might be due to socio-cultural factors. The 
Whitesheet Hill assemblage further 
evidence that not all earlier Neolithic assemblages 
are dominated by cattle bones, as Grigson (1981; 1982) 
originally suggested. This may 
importance of pigs, not simply in the relative numbers 
consumed but also in the activities incorporating the 
deposition episodes at Whitesheet Hill. It has been 
noted that although several associated groups of cattle 
conditions for 
provides 
reflect greater 
bones were deposited in the ditch, such groups were 
not as common as at Windmill Hill. Grigson (1999, 
237), however, has demonstrated that structured 
deposition of domestic mammals did vary in different 
ditch sections and it may be that other ditch sections 
at Whitesheet Hill contain relatively more cattle 
depositions than evidenced here. 
Environment 
Land Snails 
by Michael Ff. Allen 
The methods of mollusc analysis were those 
outlined by Evans (1972) and detailed elsewhere 
(Allen 1989a; 1989b). The Shannon species 
diversity index (Magurran 1988) was calculated as 
this provides some indication of assemblage 
composition and complexity and is applicable to 
subfossil assemblages rather than total faunal 
collections (Evans and Smith 1983; Evans and 
Williams 1991). 
~The causewayed ditch 
A full sequence of 26 samples was taken from the 
chalky primary ditch fills and the more humic fills 
of the ditch recut (Figures 5 and 13). Shell numbers 
were very low throughout the primary chalk rubble 
fill of the ditch (Table 6). The mollusc assemblages 
from the basal fills do not seem to represent 
primary woodland, but indicate an environment 
with some shade. 
Numbers of shells are higher in the secondary 
fills (contexts 1335, 1334 and 1333) sufficient to 
make some palaeo-environmental interpretations. 
Shade-loving species (Evans 1972, 194-5) predom- 
inate throughout these fills, primarily Carychium 
and Discus. A possible stabilisation horizon (1335) 
at the bottom of the secondary fills, although 
dominated by the Zonatids and Discus, also 
contained more open country elements such as 
Vertigo pygmaea, Pupilla muscorum and Vallonia 
costata. Some open environments are therefore 
indicated and although these might be the 
weathered ditch sides, it is more likely that tall 
herbaceous grassland, possibly with some scrub, 
prevailed. A decline in the open country species, and 
corresponding rise in C. tridentatum in particular, 
probably indicates later grassland succession 
habitats and more mesic environs of dank grass and 
shrubs such as hawthorn and hazel. A reduction in 
Pomatias elegans may indicate more stable 
conditions, perhaps vegetational cover of the ditch 
sides and fills. The continued presence of shade- 
loving elements and restricted open country fauna 
is indicative of shady environments beyond the 
immediate ditch vicinity. 
The ditch recut 
The base of the recut (1328) produced a mixed 
assemblage, notable for the absence of open country 
species. It is likely that in the period immediately 
preceding the recut of the ditch, a tall herbaceous 
vegetation community existed in which some 
shrubs (eg. hazel, hawthorn etc) were present. As 
the ditch filled with mildly calcareous humic silt 
loams, presumably largely derived from the local 
soil, shell numbers dropped dramatically alongside 
a significant change in the taxa present. The species 
present are almost exclusively open country and 
only a single non-apical fragment of any of the 
shade-loving species occurs. This indicates a major 
change in the local environment and probably can 
be seen as the reduction of shrubs and sward height 
due to more intensive grazing regimes resulting ina 
stable grassland. Thus the ditch recut can be seen to 
correspond to an increase in local land-use, 
particularly grazing. 
Internal features 
Two spot samples from pits 1295 and 1303 were 
analysed. Although molluscs from pit contexts are 
notoriously difficult to interpret (Thomas 1977; 
Allen 1995), the main aim here was not detailed 
palaeo-environmental interpretation, but 
