220 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
(Wainwright and Longworth 1971). The latter was 
partially excavated in 1968 and has been more 
recently subject to work in advance of a gas pipeline 
(Graham and Newman 1993, 52-5). The dating of 
the enclosure within the Iron Age remains 
uncertain and, on the basis of the recent work, it 
appears to have few internal features. 
The area to the east of the River Avon also 
contains numerous linear cropmarks and barrows. 
North of the A303 the pipeline passes close to 
Longbarrow Clump (SU 1640 4304) and to the 
south of a dispersed round barrow cemetery (SU 
1725 4289). The length of pipeline south of the 
A303 runs through an area characterised by 
intensive linear cropmarks, the Earl’s Farm Down 
field system (centred SU 1840 4120), and round 
barrow groups (centred SU 1790 4230, SU 1780 
4180, SU 1800 4148 and SU 1880 4100). The Earl’s 
Farm Down field system has been studied as part of 
the Wessex Linear Ditch Project, a programme of 
survey and excavation undertaken by _ the 
University of Reading (Bradley et al. 1994). This 
project revealed that much of the field system on 
Earl’s Farm Down, once thought to be associated 
with a major Bronze Age linear ditch, dates to the 
Roman period. 
METHODS 
A series of small excavations was undertaken where 
the pipeline crossed known features. Following 
these excavations, the topsoil was stripped from the 
remainder of the pipeline route and most of the 
Durrington reservoir, all of which was examined for 
archaeological features and artefacts. Pipe 
trenching was observed in plots where subsoil 
might mask features. The main concentrations of 
features have been assigned site numbers, and these 
are shown in Figures 2 and 8. 
Where the pipeline crossed the valley of the 
River Avon, the alluvial profile was recorded and 
sampled in a transect of auger holes at 10 m 
intervals (Figure 2). Samples were taken from the 
most significant sequence and provided a key 
vegetational history of the adjacent chalk 
downland. 
ORGANIZATION OF THE 
REPORT 
Although the entire length of the pipeline was 
observed, archaeological discoveries were largely 
confined to two main areas: i) the high ground to 
the north-west of the river, in the vicinity of 
Durrington Walls henge monument; and ii) Earl’s 
Farm Down. Minor archaeological features were 
identified in the Avon valley, including three water 
meadow ditches and a probable field boundary 
(Figure 2, Sites 5 and 6 respectively), as well as 
small quantities of prehistoric and Roman pottery 
and a scatter of worked flint in the area between 
Sites 5 and 6. These are not reported here in detail, 
but are listed in archive. 
Finds in the Durrington Walls area were mainly 
of Neolithic date, and those from Earl’s Farm 
Down of Bronze Age or later date. In addition, 
environmental data obtained from the Avon valley, 
and from a shallow colluvial sequence at Folly 
Bottom allow the landscape context of both areas to 
be put into a broader landscape and environmental 
context. Thus the report is divided into four 
sections: Durrington Walls environs, the Avon 
valley, Folly Bottom and Earl’s Farm Down. 
PART 1: DURRINGTON 
WALLS ENVIRONS - SITES 
1-4 
NEOLITHIC FEATURES 
Prehistoric features, almost certainly dating to the 
later Neolithic, occurred along the pipeline from 
the area of the reservoir to the west, to the area 
north of the river meander in the east (Figure 2, A 
and B). Within the area of the reservoir and its 
access road at Durrington Walls (Site 1, Figure 2), 
the earliest datable feature was a small pit, 155, 
situated some 28m to the west of a second pit, 157 
(Figure 3). The feature was circular in plan and 
measured 1.35m in diameter and 0.51m deep. 
Although the pit had been cut into crumbling 
weathered chalk, there was very little chalk in the 
dark yellowish-brown silty clay fill. It contained a 
total of 18 Neolithic flint artefacts including a 
broken ground flint axe, a single piece of burnt 
flint, 26 fragments of bone, mainly cattle, and some 
traces of charcoal. The absence of chalk rubble and 
the uniform nature of the deposit indicate that the 
pit was backfilled in a single episode soon after it 
was dug. 
Pit 157 was a shallow scoop cut into the chalk 
(Figures 2 and 3), 1.2m in diameter and 0.19m deep. 
