With contributions by Mark Corney, Simon Crutchley and Deborah Cunliffe.
E-book (PDF) published 2012.
The Salisbury Plain Training Area has been in military ownership since the late 19th century. As a consequence the area has not suffered the agricultural 'improvements' or urban developments that characterise so much of the English countryside today. It remains the largest tact of unimproved chalk downland in north-west Europe, much of it now scheduled as an ancient monument in recognition of its rich archaeological landscape, and is unparalleled anywhere else in England. The archaeology bears witness to a number of major changes in land use. While extensive Bronze Age barrow cemeteries lie on the slopes of the downs, vast carpets of 'Celtic' fields were laid out in the same areas, and this agricultural landscape was in turn, superseded by one with an extensive system of territorial divisions - the linear boundaries. Perhaps the most remarkable survivals, however, are the eleven Romano-British villages that have been identified and surveyed. These are impressive sites in their own right but it is the aerial and chronological completeness of this archaeological landscape that makes it so important, for it is actually possible to trace the ancient landscape from one village to another. Not since the work of the 19th-century antiquarians, Sir Richard Colt Hoare and William Cunnington, has the area had such detailed analysis. Using a combination of survey techniques, this volume traces human influence on the landscape from prehistoric times to the recent military activities, and presents a synthesis of the results of recent fieldwork.
Author(s): David McOmish, David Field, Graham Brown
Publisher: English Heritage
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: XVIII+184
City: Swindon
List of Illustrations vi
List of Tables vii
Foreword by Roy Canham viii
Preface x
Acknowledgements xiv
Abbreviations xiv
Summary xv
Résumé xvi
Zusammenfassung xvii
1. Introduction: the Salisbury Plain Training Area (SPTA) 1
The Training Area 2
Modern land use 4
Geology 5
Quaternary geology 6
Quaternary fauna 7
Soils 8
Drainage and water management 9
Survival and distribution of archaeological features 11
A history of previous enquiries 13
Orcheston Down: a model sequence 18
2. Earlier Prehistory: the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (c. 4500-1500 BC) 21
Long barrows 21
Causewayed enclosures 31
Henges 33
Round barrows 33
3. The Later Prehistoric Periods (c. 1500 BC - c. AD 43) 51
Prehistoric field systems 51
Later prehistoric linear earthworks 56
Enclosure and settlement morphology 67
East Chisenbury midden 73
Hillforts 74
Middle to Late Iron Age enclosed settlement 81
4. The Romano-British Period (AD 43 - c. AD 413) 87
The aftermath of the conquest 87
The Romano-British settlement pattern 88
Romano-British cultivation 100
Villa settlement 104
An imperial estate? 106
Communications and market centres 107
5. The post-Roman, Medieval and post-Medieval Periods (c. AD 413-1897) 109
Evidence for post-Roman and Anglo-Saxon occupation 109
Estates arid territorial boundaries 112
The downland landscape 114
The valley landscape 123
6. The 20th Century 137
The creation of the military estate 137
Military earthworks 138
Re-colonisation of the downs 147
7. Discussion: the Archaeological Landscape of the SPTA 149
The problem of the sarsen stones 151
Agricultural revolution 152
Enclosures 154
A new order 156
...and decline 157
The archaeology of warfare 159
8. Conclusion 160
'Song of the Dark Ages' by Prances Brett Young 162
Concordance 163
Bibliography 168
Index 174
