Longbridge Deverill Cow Down: An Early Iron Age Settlement in West Wiltshire

The early Iron Age settlement at Longbridge Deverill Cow Down, Wiltshire is justly regarded as one of the type sites of the British Iron Age. During four brief seasons of excavation between 1956 and 1960 Sonia Chadwick Hawkes investigated three enclosures and revealed the well-preserved remains of four impressive timber roundhouses. The Longbridge settlement lay within a landscape of contemporary Iron Age communities on the northern periphery of Salisbury Plain, and its particular role and place in this complex of settlements, field systems, routeways and middens remains tantalisingly obscure. A remarkable collection of pottery associated with the fiery destruction of the roundhouses, perhaps immolation in the true sense, offers a wealth of new material to consider in the light of other important collections from the region. The release of Hawkes’ archaeological data marks a major contribution to the pursuit of insight into this intriguing phase of British prehistory. 301p, b/w illus,