NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 
Table 4. Molluscs from Earl’s Farm Down Ditch 40 
Feature 
(Contexts Sl ne iat 39 
Sample 30 29 28 27 
Depth (cm) 120-130 110-120 100-110 90-100 
Wt (g) 1000 1000 1000 1000 
LAND 
Pomatias elegans (Miller) + + 3 + 
Cochlicopa lubrica (Miiller) - - 2 - 
Cochlicopa spp. - - 9 8 
Vertigo pygmaea (Draparnaud) 1 - - - 
Vertigo moulinsiana (Dupuy). - - - - 
Pupilla muscorum (Linnaeus) 11 20 2S 195, 
Vallonia costata (Miller) 1 6 190 369 
Vallonia excentrica Sterki 4 Z 17 29 
Vallonia spp. - - 12 14 
Punctum pygmaeum (Draparnaud) - - - - 
Vitrina pellucida (Miller) - - - 6 
Nesovitrea hammonis (Strém) - - - - 
Limacidae - - 3 - 
Cecilioides acicula (Miller) - - - - 
Cochlodina laminata (Montagu) — - - - - 
Clausilia bidentata (Strom) - - - 1 
Candidula intersecta (Poiret) - - - - 
Cernuella virgata (Da Costa) - - - - 
Helicella itala (Linnaeus) 4 4 38 44 
Trichia hispida (Linnaeus) - 1 13 12 
Arianta arbustorum (Linnaeus) - - - - 
Helicigona lapicida (Linnaeus) - + - - 
Cepaea/Arianta spp. - + - - 
Taxa 5 5 8 8 
TOTAL 21 33 399 678 
241 
Ditch 40 
So Ra Soy Re eS ees Oe tet tee BR ea ane eee ee ney 
26: 325) 240 93), 22-2 20, 19 18 
80-90 70-80 65-70 60-65 50-60 40-50 30-40 20-30 10-20 
1000 1000 822 880 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 
Ac. BRS Ae ME! gehen BIG aS je ce 
3 = ’ BREACH sh Site 
a She ane Le MONer SPT Sie 6B 
I” mere é Av insis: Ghar 3y~, Ae) 2 
289 188 110 373 597 379 389 288 313 
191. 67 63 233 230 47 41° 25 19 
52 19: 14 53, 57 3, 38S 28,20 
ames : 15-9 ; z : 
: : Ie egg, es : : 
< = sf 1 2 4 s 2 = 
ee : : Dig SLAW SARS ey 4 
: : : : . l Sim noe one8 
: 1 pe : in ge Bahan 
SNe. 05 1S 28) 625) oe Sees De, eet 
De een NOT ee 3h DA 
: 2 : E geet. ieee A eee | 
O:: TAS One Tomas * oir pio Aion rae 
631 303 205 760 999 523 524 410 394 
incompatible with the suggested later Bronze Age 
date for these features. Certainly other landscape 
studies in the area have pointed to an open landscape 
with a mixture of pasture and arable land-use at this 
time (Allen and Wyles 1993; 1994; Evans 1971; 
Evans and Jones 1979; Entwistle 1994). 
In view of some of the recent research on the 
chalk downlands of southern England (Allen 1994; 
1997) it is relatively unusual to record such a long 
history of uninterrupted pasture and lack of tllage. 
It does however, confirm suggestions made for the 
_ Stonehenge area (Allen 1997). If, however, these 
large linear ditches had banks on both sides then the 
assemblages may represent, for instance, the grazed 
grassy bank rather than an arable landscape, 
through which the ditch system passed. Indeed, 
recent observations (Entwistle pers. comm.) 
indicate that this feature may exist as a double- 
banked ditch further to the south. It is, 
nevertheless, more likely that the short-turfed 
grassland was much more widespread than in the 
immediate vicinity. 
The consistent use of the area as pasture may 
indicate that this was a well established and 
managed downland farm and that the ditches were 
more than simple field boundaries to retain stock. 
The ditches may comprise a part of Bradley’s 
‘ranch boundaries’ of the Wessex Downland 
(Bradley 1978, 47; Bowen 1978; Bowen and Fowler 
1978; Bradley et al. 1994). Bradley suggests that the 
instigation of these boundaries in the later Bronze 
Age reflects either a change in the economy from a 
revival of cereal farming to a greater emphasis on 
livestock, or an attempt to secure a_ better 
integration of arable and pasture, or a desire to 
demarcate territories possibly in connection with 
increased competition and even raiding (Bradley 
1978, 117). These are not mutually exclusive 
hypotheses. If agro-pastoral integration was one of 
the objectives then it is likely that arable areas were 
not adjacent to both the ditches. 
