The Codford Circle

At Codford, an aerial photograph revealed cropmarks within the extant single bank and ditch, consistent with a much earlier type of monument, a Neolithic causewayed enclosure. An archaeological investigation was therefore conducted in 2001. The two cropmarks were found to have been produced by pits, one of which was fully excavated. Cut into the solid chalk to a depth of 3 metres and measuring 2 x 3 metres across, it contained a dark sticky deposit comprising charcoal, burnt flint, burnt or charred animal bones and a small, scorched sarsen boulder. All the datable finds suggest that the pit and its deposit belong to the early Iron Age rather than the Neolithic period.