Landscape Plotted and Pieced : Landscape History and Local Archaeology in Fyfield and Overton, Wiltshire

Abstract

This book presents the results of 39 years of study of the two Wiltshire parishes of Fyfield and Overton Down. The aim of the project, using a diverse range of research methods, from archaeological excavation and experimental archaeology through the study of environmental and documentary evidence to the non-invasive techniques of geophysics and air photography, was to elucidate how and when the landscape came by its present appearance. The author draws three illuminating conclusions from this investigation. First, very little, if any, of this landscape is now "natural": it has been created by the agricultural activities of successive communities over the last 6,000 years. Second, the nature of this "artefact" has been, and continues to be, influenced by the geology, hydrology, soils and climate of the area. Finally, the principal land-use features of the present landscape were established at particular times over the last four millennia, and that what has come to be seen as a quintessentially "English" landscape was in fact set some 1,500 years ago.

Origins of the sarsen megaliths at Stonehenge

“…West Woods lies within a concentration of Early Neolithic activity, being close to Avebury, numerous long barrows, and the causewayed enclosure at Knap Hill (37). Evidence of Mesolithic through Iron Age occupation has been recorded in the area, including a 40-m-long Early Neolithic chambered long barrow, sarsen standing stones, a sarsen polissoir used to sharpen stone axes, and prehistoric fields where now-wooded ground was previously open, cultivated land (36,38,39). Why, in a region with the greatest density of extant sarsen stones in Britain (Fig.…”

Europe’s Early Land Allotment: Questions of Time, Scale and Stewardship

“…The chapters generally present the earliest manifestations of fieldscapes in later prehistory (c. 2000-500 BC; Table 1.2). However, other studies from later periods have shown the potential of relating late prehistoric and early historic land allotment processes through a combination of archaeological and historical evidence, as has been carried out fruitfully by Susan Oosthuizen (2013) and Peter Fowler (2000). Finally, there remain unaddressed questions about how prehistoric field systems can have relevance for present-day communities throughout Europe by connecting people with land, contributing to sustainability education, and shaping the identities of localities.…”

Mining and Quarrying in Neolithic Europe

“…The importance of ethnohistorical and oral history sources to draw attention to these activities is cast into sharp relief, given the difficulty of characterising the archaeological record which remains unexplored. But despite the destructive reputation of explosives, both powder and plastic could be used in controlled ways and in West Woods there is considerable potential For example, the flint assemblage excavated by Peter Fowler (2000) at the Overton Down polissoir may be susceptible to re-interpretation. Fowler suggested that the polissoir had once stood upright in an adjacent socket hole (regrettably only partially-investigated), implying that the sarsen had been raised from its natural recumbent position (2000,.…”