Causewayed enclosures are idiosyncratic monuments that have been variously interpreted since they were first recognised as a monument type.
Archaeologists have had a rare opportunity to excavate an entire causewayed enclosure ahead of gravel extraction near Datchet, on the flood plain of the R Thames. The earliest activity on the site dates from the Mesolithic period (c8500-c4000 BCE); around 820 pieces of flint and a chunk of a beautifully worked flint axe have been found. Subsequently, farmers from the continent came in along the Thames, colonising the fertile land on either bank. The causewayed enclosure was seemingly built during the early Neolithic to satisfy the human need to get together.
The monument has some features unlike other such monuments. One is that a natural paleochannel was used along the N border. The rest of the enclosure consisted of 25 separate ditches, with causeways left for access. Between them, people and nature managed to form an enclosure 185m across, enclosing an area of about two football pitches. The trenches varied from between 5-25m long, and 0.5-1.1m deep. A wide gap along the S boundary suggests
the entrance.
It is generally assumed that causewayed enclosures were used for large commensal gatherings, because of the large quantities of cooked and gnawed bone found in the ditches. A number of
cultural items were also found here, which were probably of significance. In some cases, sections were used for a unique type of object – one had a nearly complete Neolithic pot, while another had fragments of polished stone and flint axes. Others were mixed. Human bones were found deposited in four ditches. In one case, an almost complete human skeleton was found at the bot-
tom – after the flesh had decayed, the body was disturbed and the skull and left femur removed; similar treatment has been noted at other sites, including Hambledon Hill in Dorset.
More in Northern Earth May 2020
https://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146414500
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