Causewayed enclosure at Roughton

TG 2235 ACZ 28-JUN-1996 (c) NMAS. Photographer D. A. Edwards

Causewayed Enclosure and Mortuary Enclosure

The circle of dark lines visible in the centre of the photograph has been interpreted as a Neolithic causewayed enclosure. This type of archaeological site is found predominantly in southern Britain and most examples are believed to be approximately 5000-6000 years old. The way in which they were used is not fully understood, but they may have been a meeting point for small, dispersed groups of people living in the surrounding area, a place where the exchange of goods, ritual feasting and other ceremonial activities might have taken place. The site shown here is visible as a series of cropmarks, the darker patches of vegetation indicating the presence of a ditch or pit below the ploughsoil. The characteristic feature of a causewayed enclosure, clearly visible here, is the use of segments of ditch to surround an area (the undisturbed ground between two ditch segments is known as a causeway). A narrow trench which once held a timber palisade is faintly visible just inside the circle of ditches. Towards the top of the photograph the roughly rectangular shape of a long barrow or mortuary enclosure can be seen. This is also likely to date to the Neolithic period, and provides further evidence of the ceremonial use of the area by prehistoric communities.

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