INTRODUCTION TO PREHISTORY

NEOLITHIC FACTSHEET 5 CAUSEWAYED ENCLOSURES

Causewayed enclosures are circular or sub- between one and five circuits. Enclosure size circular monuments dating to the early Neolithic ranges from less than 1 hectare (e.g. Offham Hill, (3700−3500 BC) or around 5500 years ago. East Sussex) to just under 10 hectares (Windmill These monuments are extremely important as Hill, Wilshire). Banks, where they survive, are they are the first evidence for enclosure of the usually placed on the inside of the ditches; some landscape. The Neolithic was a time of immense examples have evidence for more complex change: from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a timber palisades or ramparts. As the name semi-sedentary agricultural one; from a micro- implies ditches and banks are interrupted by flint technology associated with hunting frequent causeways. Their segmented nature has equipment to a larger and more diverse led to suggestions that particular work gangs or repertoire including ground flint and stone axes; family members were responsible for creating and from bark and skin containers to pottery individual parts of the monuments – perhaps vessels. The take up of these innovations was, reflecting the general structure of society. however, uneven across the country. Longer causeways have been interpreted as entrances. These are sometimes associated with The term causewayed was first coined by M E ‘architectural’ features such as flattening of one Cunnington during investigations at Knap Hill, side of the enclosure and the in-turning of ditch in the early twentieth century. E C segments. Banks are often quite slight and would Curwen went on to define ‘causewayed camps’ generally have been of little use defensively in a paper in Antiquity in 1930. In his paper although pioneer investigators viewed them in Curwen was able to describe 16 sites although that light, hence the early name ‘causewayed we now know that not all of these actually date camps’. to the Neolithic. Excavations at a number of important sites were undertaken during the Not all enclosures are defined by complete early decades of the twentieth century – notably circuits. Several examples (e.g. Sawbridgeworth, at Windmill Hill, Wiltshire which is often Hertfordshire, Buckland and Broadwell both in regarded as the ‘type’ site for this class of Oxfordshire) appear to have used landscape monument. Other sites investigated at around features including rivers to ‘complete’ their this time include The Trundle, Sussex; Abingdon, circuit(s), while Birdlip Camp and Crickley Hill in Oxfordshire, and Whitehawk Hill, Sussex. the Cotswolds cut off adjoining spurs overlooking the Vale of Gloucester. Similarly Over 80 causewayed enclosures are now known placed promontory forts elsewhere from the British Isles, and new examples may hide, or have eradicated, ditch lines of much continue to be revealed – the most recent earlier causewayed enclosures. Imposing examples at Larkhill, near Stonehenge in outworks cut off approaches to the causewayed Wiltshire and Riding Court Farm, Berkshire enclosure on , Dorset and both found in 2016. They are far from evenly sections of ditch elsewhere may have ‘protected’ spread, however, being overwhelmingly enclosures now masked by hillforts (e.g. Rybury, concentrated south of a line from the Wash to Wilts). Continuously ditched Neolithic the Severn estuary. This is the area closest to enclosures also appear in certain areas of the the Continent where they are also known (e.g. country (e.g. Sussex) and the ‘tor enclosures’ of , and Germany) but also the Cornwall bear resemblance to causewayed principal zone of modern arable farming, that enclosures and should be viewed as related furnishes the vital cropmark evidence of their monuments. presence. Detailed analysis of the stratigraphy has shown Causewayed enclosures vary in form that ditches were frequently cleaned out, considerably but their principal defining feature perhaps on an annual basis. Varied artefactual is interrupted ditches which can number and environmental remains have been recovered 1 from them despite the fact that many sites have Large quantities of arrowheads littered the revealed limited evidence for activities within the ground around the entrance to the enclosure at interior of the enclosure itself. Finds include Crickley Hill, Gloucestershire that had partly worked flint and stone, pottery, animal bones. been destroyed by fire. On Hambledon Hill a Frequently the ends of ditches were used to timber palisade collapsed onto the body of a place complex deposits of artefacts. At Etton, in young man with an arrowhead embedded in his Cambridgeshire waterlogging had preserved chest cavity and at the tor enclosure at Carn items including an axe haft, vegetable fibre twine Brae, Cornwall 800 arrowheads were recovered (Neolithic ‘string’), and wooden containers along with evidence of burning. Clearly some which provide details about everyday life that sites at least came to a violent end. It seems they are missing from the majority of sites. The often were pivotal to society at a period when many large quantities of seemingly domestic debris led changes were taking place. early investigators to suggest they were settlements. Some elements of ‘settlement’ or Radiocarbon dating has shown that causewayed ‘domestic’ activities can be seen at causewayed enclosures were used for perhaps only a couple enclosures but they were clearly not of hundred years, although evidence from a continuously occupied. Environmental evidence, number of sites has shown that they were still particularly from sites in Sussex, has shown that being visited in the Late Neolithic and Early some at least were constructed in woodland . Very much later several sites had clearings. Iron Age hillforts superimposed upon them (e.g. Crickley, Hill, Glos, Hambledon Hill and Maiden The huge range and variety of artefacts at many Castle both in Dorset). of these sites has led researchers to interpret enclosures as meeting places where the Further Reading exchange of goods and ideas took place. Ritual activities are indicated by the very structured Mercer, R.J. 1990. Causewayed Enclosures. (organised) nature of many of the deposits of Princes Risborough: Shire Archaeology selected materials and human remains. Evidence Oswald, A. 2011. Introduction to Heritage Assets: for exposure or excarnation of bodies has been Causewayed Enclosures. London: English Heritage identified at some sites (e.g. Hambledon Hill, https://content.historicengland.org.uk/images- Dorset). Rather than a single all-embracing books/publications/iha-causewayed- explanation it is likely that activities varied from enclosures/causewayedenclosures.pdf/ site to site or were zoned within them; at Etton Oswald, A., Dyer, C. & Barber, M. 2001. The it was possible to identify distinct activity areas Creation of Monuments. Neolithic Causewayed within the enclosure relating to either the Enclosures in the British Isles. London: English everyday/domestic or to ritual. Heritage

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Plans of Causewayed enclosures mentioned in the text. Black lines represent ditches. Source: Philippa Bradley

This factsheet was prepared for the Prehistoric Society by Philippa Bradley (Wessex Archaeology)

The Prehistoric Society is a registered charity (no. 1000567) and company limited by guarantee (no. 2532446). Registered Office: University College London, Institute of Archaeology, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY. Date published: 09/2019.

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