NEOLITHIC AND LATER PREHISTORIC LANDSCAPE OF THE AVON VALLEY 243 
the buried soils and ditches of barrows on the King 
Barrow Ridge (Allen and Wyles 1994), colluvium 
and a pit at Figheldean (Allen and Wyles 1993), the 
ditch at Woodhenge (Evans and Jones 1979) and the 
results of the Stonehenge Environs Project (Allen et 
al. 1990). These data show that fairly large tracts of 
land were cleared in the Early Neolithic, and that 
by the later Neolithic the area was a largely cleared 
landscape (cf Allen er al. 1990, fig. 154; Allen 1997, 
plates 3 and 4). This process probably followed 
initial localised clearance on the downland, but 
evidently not in the Avon valley. 
Bronze Age 
During the Bronze Age the Stonehenge environs 
existed as a large area of pasture and fields with 
large-scale woodland clearance. Molluscan 
evidence from the Figheldean ring-ditch supports 
this view and indicates highly xerophilous (i.e. 
open dry) conditions exemplified by the record of 
Truncatellina cylindrica, a species now extinct in 
Wiltshire (Evans 1972, 140), from the Bronze Age 
ditch fills. This rare species has been recorded 
particularly in the Durrington locality in the third 
and early second millennia BC. It occurred in the 
middle to Late Neolithic pre-bank soil at 
Durrington Walls (Evans 1971) and Woodhenge 
(Evans and Jones 1971), Neolithic fills of the 
Stonehenge Cursus (Allen 1997), the later Neolithic 
buried soil beneath the King Barrows (Allen and 
Wyles 1994) and buried soil beneath the Bronze 
Age barrows on Earl’s Farm Down (Kerney 1964; 
1967) and Boscombe Down (Kennard and 
Woodward 1931). Occurrence of the species is seen 
to be both spatially and temporally controlled. It 
was not recorded within the Stonehenge Environs 
Project (Allen et al. 1990), Stonehenge ditch (Evans 
1984) or Wilsford Shaft (Bell 1991) and may 
indicate long term, well established clearance. The 
existence of a large area of established open 
downland covering King Barrow Ridge - 
Figheldean — Boscombe Down, in at least the early 
second millennium suggests initial clearance and 
-establishment of open downland prior to this (i.e. 
earlier-middle Neolithic). Perhaps this open 
landscape is recorded in the Avon Valley pollen 
diagram (Durrington: 2). This long established 
open landscape may also provide the opportunity 
for large-scale erosion from open downland, 
resulting in the truncation of early deposits in the 
local valleys and the deposition of coarse gravel fans 
(e.g. at Folly Bottom). Truncation of the original 
soils from these locations may have occurred as 
early as the middle Neolithic, when, it is argued, 
the inception of larger-scale clearance ocurred 
(Allen 1997). 
By the later Bronze Age this open, well- 
established, landscape was extensively farmed, sub- 
divided and defined by the linear ditch systems 
(Earls Farm Down; Bradley et al. 1994). These 
boundaries may also have separated different land- 
uses as well as demarcating ownership or territorial 
rights. 
Romano-British 
Localised alder carr in the Avon valley floodplain 
suggests that it was drier than previously, thus 
enabling woody vegetation to develop. Exploitation 
of the area seems to have been focused on the 
surrounding downland. It is only in the medieval 
period that the use of the floodplain itself for 
grazing or agriculture became established, being 
dry at this period. 
CONCLUSIONS 
by Rosamund M.7. Cleal 
There is little archaeological evidence for activity 
in the vicinity of Durrington Walls before the 
Neolithic. In the earlier Neolithic there was 
unenclosed occupation on the high ground to the 
west of the river in the area later occupied by 
Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, and a long 
barrow at Longbarrow Clump, to the east of the 
river (Figure 1). The extent and nature of this early 
settlement is largely unknown, as the evidence 
survives only beneath the extant banks of the two 
later Neolithic henge monuments and as 
redeposited material within the later Neolithic 
assemblages. The pre-bank occupation at 
Durrington Walls has been dated by three 
radiocarbon determinations, calibrated to the 
second half of the fourth millennium BC (3500- 
3000 cal BC; Richards 1990, fig. 156). The material 
from Woodhenge does not have any associated 
radiocarbon determination, but is likely to be of 
similar date. 
Whether the earlier Neolithic pottery from 
these contexts represents long term use of the area, 
or episodic use over half a millennium or more, it is 
this earlier Neolithic occupation which has been 
tentatively associated with woodland clearance, 
indicated by the molluscan evidence from beneath 
the northern sector of the bank at Durrington Walls 
(Evans 1971). A long period of open conditions in 
the area is also attested by the molluscs from 
