242 THE WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY MAGAZINE 
PART 4: DISCUSSION 
by Michael 7. Allen and Rosamund 
M.F. Cleal 
The investigations conducted along the pipeline are 
individually not necessarily of great importance, 
excepting the pollen sequence from the Avon 
Valley. Nevertheless, the intervention provides a 
‘sample slice’ of chalk landscape (cf. Allen and 
Powell 1996) essentially avoiding all major 
archaeological sites and features that might 
normally be investigated within a_ research 
programme. This rather arbitrary selection of sites 
provides an opportunity to review the non- 
monumental nature of, especially, the Neolithic to 
Bronze Age periods north of Amesbury. 
ENVIRONMENT AND 
ECONOMY 
by Michael Ff. Allen 
The pollen analysis of the Avon Valley deposits has 
undoubtedly produced a major prehistoric 
sequence, the full interpretation of which is limited 
by the lack of a series of radiocarbon dates. 
Nevertheless, the data provided by this analysis 
combined with molluscan evidence from a number 
of sites in the region make a_ significant 
contribution to our understanding of the activities 
of past populations on the Amesbury downland. 
Mesolithic 
The undated pollen spectrum from the Avon Valley 
at Durrington produced a major early Holocene 
sequence. Apart from depicting a typical but short 
late glacial sequence it provides the basis for 
understanding the development of the river valley 
floodplain and, therefore, the potential for human 
activity within and adjacent to the floodplain. 
Without dating for the pollen sequence, however, 
no detailed archaeological commentary is possible 
to augment this information — palynological 
investigation of the Upper Palaeolithic and 
Mesolithic periods is therefore in archive. 
Needless to say, the valley was an important 
topographic feature of the environment in all 
periods, acting as a communication route (either 
on water or within the valley), providing access to 
water, and to local riverbank and floodplain 
vegetation, including resources for food, shelter, 
fire-making and the like. 
The pollen sequence spanning the Upper 
Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods does not seem 
to show any direct anthropogenic intrusion into the 
natural vegetation sequence, but there are defined 
vegetation fluctuations within this zone. The lack 
of such activity is confirmed, to some extent, by 
both the presence of assumed Mesolithic woodland, 
as evidenced by the mollusca at Durrington Walls 
(Evans 1971) and Woodhenge (Evans and Jones 
1979), and also by the lack of Mesolithic elements 
in the large flint assemblages from Durrington 
Walls (Wainwright and Longworth 1971) and from 
the Stonehenge Environs Project as a whole 
(Richards 1990; Cleal et al. 1995). Contrary to this, 
there are indications at Stonehenge that localised 
clearance occurred in the Mesolithic (Scaife 1995; 
Allen 1995). A pit and postholes from the 
Stonehenge car park all produced pine charcoal 
with Mesolithic radiocarbon dates (Vatcher and 
Vatcher 1973; Allen 1994; 1995), and gave rise to 
indications of more formal activity in the 
Mesolithic period (Allen and Gardiner 2002). 
Further clearance is also recorded about 16km 
north-west at Strawberry Hill, West Lavington 
(Hedges et al. 1992; Allen 1994). Similar evidence 
has not yet been forthcoming from the Downs 
around Amesbury, though it has been observed 
elsewhere in southern England (Allen and 
Gardiner 2002; Allen 2002). 
Neolithic 
The pollen sequence from the valley indicates a 
major hiatus and Scaife suggests that the later 
Mesolithic and earlier Neolithic sedimentary 
elements were lost through erosion. Although the 
pollen sequence remains undated, Scaife argues 
that the inception of a cleared and tilled landscape 
could be of Neolithic to Bronze Age date. We might, 
however, envisage this as mid to later Neolithic 
activity, in view of the significant molluscan 
evidence from nearby monuments and the general 
reconstructions of the landscape suggested by Allen 
(1997). Molluscan evidence for widespread 
clearance in the earlier-middle Neolithic includes 
that from the pre-bank occupation at Durrington 
Walls (associated with earlier Neolithic Windmill 
Hill pottery with radiocarbon dates from charcoal 
mainly between 3500 and 3000 cal BC (Allen 1997, 
fig. 2)), and the buried soil at Stonehenge (Allen 
1997). These examples indicate that open 
established grassland conditions and arable land 
existed in the middle Neolithic. Similar evidence 
includes the later Neolithic molluscan faunas from 
