Stone tool, date uncertain
Flint, Mesolithic
Shale Bracelet, probably Iron Age
Pottery Jar, fragment, Early Iron Age
The Site of the Ring Ditch
I had photographed four objects, found by Wessex Archaeology on the Hunters Moon site: a stone tool, a piece of worked flint, a shale bracelet and a fragment of pottery, one of 162, from a jar. The findspots of the stone and the flint were easy to locate via grid references, the bracelet and the pottery had been excavated close to an Early Bronze Age ring ditch, and there was some uncertainty as to their positions. I visited several times in the spring and summer of 2023 and 2024, looking for the site of the ring ditch. Photographs in the report by Wessex Archaeology showed its circular shape, defined by pits dug around the perimeter, with a small wood in the background, but the landscape had been altered since then and though the wood remained, it was difficult to see where the ring ditch had been situated. However, at the end of summer 2024 I found two grid references from which I was able to calculate the centre of the ring ditch and from that, the findspots of the shale bracelet, which had been excavated close to the edge, north north-east of the centre, and the fragmented, inverted jar, which had been found slightly further out.
First visit to the site, January 2023, the ring ditch was situated somewhere in this landscape
Ring ditch is a general term for the circular ditch, whose vestigial remains is often a crop mark, visible itself only in very dry summers, with a particular raking light. For the most thorough and informative interpretation of the Hunters Moon site see the article by T. Wells of Wessex Archaeology in Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, Vol. 111. Here, this particular ring ditch is assessed as “a small round barrow or similar form of monument post-dating the two gullies within”. The fact that redeposited, cremated human bone was found at the south side of the ring ditch and the shale bracelet and inverted jar were discovered close to the north-eastern edge only suggests that the site was a funerary site, and the article discusses this. It was felt that there were not enough well preserved finds to fully interpret the site and speculation ranges around the Late Prehistoric to Early Iron Age occupation with the question of funerary activities not confirmed but not completely cancelled out.
5th January 2023 First Visit
I caught the bus, alighted at Sainsbury’s, crossed the A4 and walked up to Haystack Avenue. There were new houses on both sides of the road, some complete and occupied, Christmas wreaths still on the doors, the warmth of the festive season no longer evoked by the decorations; now the air was damp and there was a sense of distance between all living things as the afternoon tapered towards the end of the short winters day. Only a few people were out, walking briskly towards their destinations. This was my first visit to the site and I was trying to see where the ring ditch had been excavated. The plateau above Haystack Avenue was quite high, a factor which possibly made it a good place for a settlement or a ceremony but I thought that the site of the ring ditch was somewhere below the summit in the fenced-off building site. There was a path, taking a zigzag route, making the steep uphill journey easier; I had seen it in an earlier form on Google Maps: a yellow line, scratched on to the hillside; now it was finished, with a wooden trim and a strip of grey stone chippings separating it from the grassy banks. As I walked up I saw how the ground fell away below me, in a series of terraces, moulded by the developers. Sapling trees had been planted on the hill, thin branches against the cold sky. The path around the hill top turned off at two points to go under a security fence. I looked through the steel mesh; the first turn-off, cut out of the hillside, curved round to join the second one, and form a single route to the building site. Though the ground had been disturbed by the excavations, it appeared that no-one had worked here for some time, at least two years, and wild plants had taken advantage of the disturbed and neglected territory. Dry stems, dark brown and leaning slightly, dotted with seed heads, grew up from the yellowed grass, others lay almost horizontal, slanting in the same direction. Beyond the mound, created by earth which had been shifted to make the path, was the building site; no activity now, quiet on account of the holiday. Signs on the fence warned people to keep away.
The hill top at Hunters Moon, the site of the ring ditch is on the right, just below the summit
Without grid references, I could only try to gauge the position of the ring ditch from the site plans in Wessex Archaeology’s report. There were also limits to my explorations because of the barricades, so I followed the perimeter of the building site trying to see beyond the galvanised steel fencing. The fence led to where the path turned off a second time; there was a large sign – No Entry – on the barrier which blocked the path, and a smaller one reminding parents to keep their children away from the building site. Below me there was a different view of the site of the ring ditch, but the landscape I had seen in photographs of the excavation, the plateau, with a circle of dark clay indicating the ring ditch, looked different now. The topography had been altered and in the five years since the photographs had been taken, shrubs, grasses and other plants had established themselves. I walked back around the barricades. Last yeas brambles, pressed up against the fence, all brown now, with a few golden leaves here and there. Above, bare branches on the trees. The area that I was interested in was definitely on the other side of the fence but there were no means by which I could enter, I would have to wait until the work was finished and the site of the ring ditch was sealed beneath tarmac or in someone’s garden.
I decided to see if I could approach the site from Saltersford Lane; an area without too many developments. Leaving the hill top behind I walked beyond the last of the new houses and along the lane to the small wood. The wire from an old fence hung down into rough grass and I stepped over onto a track leading under low branches, some fallen and lying across the path, through undergrowth, sparse and leafless, and up a slope. It was darker amongst the trees, but I found some steps that had been cut into the earth. I climbed up until I reached the top edge of the wood and pushed through between a prickly sloe hedge and the site barrier. I could now see down the hill to the stream that flowed through the lower part of the development but the ground below the summit was hidden by building materials and machines and the light was fading. Only two white silos stood out from the shadows.
Barriers enclose the building site and the site of the ring ditch
Looking up towards the site of the ring ditch
From the small wood, it was only possible to see the two silos
I turned back, stepping sideways, looking for the place where I had left the wood. It was hard to see and eventually I found a gap, a different one, with the ground falling away below. Holding on to exposed tree roots, I lowered myself down. There was no path and I stumbled over logs in the half light until I came across a trail, the path of some light-footed creature, which I was able to follow, breaking through broken stemmed woodland plants until I came to a regular track which led back to the lane. I realised then, that I had almost completed a full circle and that I was looking up at the site from just below where I had been earlier. I took some more photographs even though it was now very dark and headed back along “Haystack," the new name already abbreviated, when I asked for directions, then the A4 and the bus home.
3rd July 2024 Over A Year Later
I was visiting the Hunters Moon site with photographs of the shale bracelet, the fragment of pottery and the stone. The heat of the previous two weeks had come to an end and the constant blue sky was now filled with cloud. There was a turbulence in the air instead of stillness. I took the bus, got off at Sainsbury’s and crossed the road, passing TK Maxx, Next, Marks and Spencer and on my left, Aldi. I made my way up Haystack Avenue. The hillside grasses had benefited from the warmer weather and they grew tall and golden, with seed stems of dock, light red, growing amongst them. A printed sign said that the grass would be cut twice a year. On the banks, patches of bare earth had appeared, the clay soil dried out and breaking open; I peered into the crevices looking for the edge of something, some object, hand made. Most of this area, had until recently, been a large field. The finds, excavated by Wessex Archaeology, suggest that the site had been inhabited or settled during the Iron Age and earlier.
Hunters Moon, the hill side
The route to the site where the stone was found
The stone was excavated at this lowest point, from an Iron Age pit
The findspot of the stone was at the bottom of the hill and I turned off Haystack Avenue and followed a flight of long, shallow steps down to the lowest part of the development. A small stream ran behind the houses, overhung with hawthorn and other, taller trees. The road was quiet; it was Friday afternoon and there was a sense of anticipation for the weekend ahead, a lull before children came home from school and adults returned from work. The railway embankment, overtaken by a mass of brambles, crossed the end of the road. A goods train passed slowly by, its wagons flashing yellow as it moved between the tree tops growing above the line. The houses were semi-detached; the first two were red brick but the last three on the row were made of ochre-coloured bricks, slightly irregular in shape. I had calculated that the stone had been found in the garden of one of these houses and I hoped to take photographs with the house in the background. Three mature trees stood on a grassy slope, opposite the houses. Bushy plants with yellow flowers grew in the borders, small evergreen shrubs lined some of the front paths, a large England flag, red on white, leaned against the wall of one of the houses, hanging down, shifting in the breeze. Bunting made of smaller St. George flags decorated one of the porches. The World Cup football matches were in progress. There were not many places to position the photograph; I tried tacking it onto a wooden sign asking people to keep off the grass, then I placed it on the road and photographed it as best I could. A light breeze unfurled the England flag. The photograph, mounted on board, kept blowing over. The wind gathered force and the sky darkened. I quickly tacked the photograph on to a lamp post and took some final pictures before rain began to fall and I had to pack up. By the time I reached Haystack Avenue the rain had stopped. I followed the pavement which carved a route round the hill, a channel of stone chippings defining the edge, crumbled earth spilling, brown, onto the shiny black tarmac, ragwort and dock growing now on the slope which I had climbed earlier in the year. I continued along the pavement. Next to the new road, the completed houses came to an end and the building site began; there was a high red-brick wall, topped by a wooden fence supporting the cutting made for the road. Two tall silos, Euoromix, advertised “Quality mortar Right when you need it,” they had been there since I first started visiting the site and showed up on the earlier Google Maps, two white landmarks, behind them, the incline leading to the hill top, more ragwort, bright and yellow, and just below the summit, most likely behind barriers – the site of the ring ditch. As I could go no further in this direction I turned back along the new road, red leaved shrubs, possibly photinia, sprightly, in front of the houses.
Haystack Avenue, one of the new roads The site of the ring ditch is on the left of the photograph, beyond the mound covered in ragwort
The western side of the hill, knapweed growing amongst the grasses
A footpath, already made, a short cut to the top of the hill
Beside the old field boundary the other side of the hill sloped up, here knapweed grew, prolific amongst the grasses, purple knots, unopened as yet, and below the grey sky, houses, dull ochre in the dark light. I followed a narrow track, between the plants, a short cut up the hill, made by regular footfall, and climbed up alongside the hedge. The barriers were still in place, containing the building site. The path peeling off from the leisure area was still blocked by a security fence and the small area, where I suspected the ring ditch had been situated was not only cut off from the hill top but also separated from the main building site. Not knowing whether I was in exactly the right place or not, but certain that the position of the ring ditch lay somewhere in front of me, I decided to try fixing the photographs of the bracelet and the fragment of the jar onto the barriers. The weather was still mutable. A bright sun lit up the yellow ragwort, the gorse and the white silos, and gleamed off the metal fences, all with a backdrop of a now sultry sky. I attached the pictures of the Iron Age finds to the barriers and took photographs with the estimated position of their findspots behind them. The wind travelled around the hill top. The thin metal rods of the barriers caught the breeze and vibrated, humming in the changing light. I worked for a while then packed up and walked back down the slanting path, up Haystack Avenue and down to the A4 to catch the bus home.
Shale bracelet, probably Iron Age. Findspot: Hunters Moon, Chippenham
29th July 2024 The Stone Tool
The lower part of the Hunters Moon site, close to the findspot of the stone tool
Hot weather was forecast. I decided to make an early start, to avoid the harsh light of midday. The bus was almost empty. Nobody wanted to be out in the heat. I got off at Sainsbury’s, crossed the road and walked to Hill Top Park, the official name for the estate on the Hunters Moon site. The road ahead was pale in the morning light, white kerbstones, grey tarmac and grass verges, green, next to the temporary wooden fences screening the next stages of building work. Trees planted over two years ago were now established. Houses were built from Bath stone, or red brick, some had a white stucco finish. There were various vernacular details; some front doors, side by side, shared a simple flat canopy, others had individual scoops of metal, curving out and over the entrance. Below the front windows, small strips had been planted with shrubs or filled with different coloured stone chippings, purple, yellow or grey. It was the beginning of the school holidays. All was quiet. There was a feeling of liberation in the air, on the empty streets and behind the closed front door.
Stone, date uncertain. Findspot: Hunters Moon, Chippenham
I walked down to the lower part of the site near to the stream. Here was the spot where the stone had been found by Wessex Archaeology in 2018, in an Iron Age pit. I had already visited and experimented with different positions for the photograph, and finally I had tacked the board on to a lamp post, but rain began to fall and I had to abandon my task. I was returning because it was here, on the lamp post, that the photograph of the stone held its position best, with the site of its discovery and last usage behind it. I took photographs from different angles, breaking off to shelter in the shade of the three large trees. The football World Cup was still in progress and the England flags remained, lax in the still air. When I felt that I had taken the right photographs I walked back along the residential roads towards the hill top. The fence was still there enclosing the hedge, the building site and the small area where I thought the ring ditch had been situated. I followed Haystack Avenue up and round the hill. The avenue had been extended and it appeared that it would eventually join two roads which had been completed earlier: Wheatfield Avenue and Herdsman Close. Below me, were the last of the houses to be built, dark crimson red photinia, in the front gardens, waxy leaves gleaming in the heat. On the hill, rust brown dock, gone to seed, thrusting up in patches with a few sprigs of ragwort, then on the higher part of the slope more ragwort, bright in the sun. As I turned the corner I had a view of the whole of this side of the hill – the ragwort had taken over. Earlier in the year, the slope had been green, with low-growing grass, features, some left over from the excavation, were visible, now, all was yellow. Dry clay, baking in the heat, was exposed where the slope met the pavement, there were a few other plants, then the ragwort. I climbed up, finding gaps between the plants, until I came across the path made of stone chippings, almost hidden now by overhanging ragwort, and followed it up, parting the plant stems as I went and turning off to a grassy area, soft plumed stalks, hazy in the harsh light and low growing thistles; purple flowers – some already tufted seed heads. I walked a bit further and looked down onto the confluence of tracks and barricades where I had estimated the outer edge of the ring ditch to be and where the shale bracelet and the fragmented jar had been found.
Ragwort growing around the site of the ring ditch, Hunters Moon
I took a few photographs but decided not to force my way further through the plants and turned back. There was wide view over the plain of the River Avon, across flat fields, into the distance; it seemed likely, as suggested in the archaeological report, that the site had some significance during the Early Bronze Age. The new houses were below me; a delivery lorry, maroon with gold lettering, was parked in front of one of them, its roller door pulled up to reveal an empty interior. All was quiet, restrained by the midday heat, the hillside and houses, the trees and the avenue, all enveloped in the hottest time of the day. The upper windows of the houses reflected the ragwort, yellow, framed by the white glazing bars. I stepped sideways down the steep slope, missing the path and navigating through plants, the parched clay sliding away under my feet, before heading back along Haystack Avenue towards the developer’s office. I had been communicating with Bloor, the developers, and was hoping to have a conversation. I entered the site office and introduced myself to the receptionist who happened to be the person to whom I had spoken on the telephone. I had been discussing when I could visit the site and I was pleased to make contact in person. However, she said that there was a problem. I wondered if further archaeological discoveries had been made – but no: ragwort. She explained to me that it is highly poisonous and that I would have to wait till it had gone over before I could be taken up there. We agreed that I should make contact later in the year and I resolved to stay away until the ragwort had died down as the plants were too tall to work around. It was a short walk down to the A4 and the shade of the trees next to the bus stop.
20th September 2024 Stormy Weather
Flint, Mesolithic. Findspot: Hunters Moon, Chippenham
Summer had been a time of heat, today, thunderstorms were predicted. Though for now all was bright, this felt like the last stand of summer, a return to earlier days but with a sense of fullness reached, and passed, a thinness in the air and in the light. Crops had been cut, no more waving plumes, and some fields ploughed, so already in their autumn brown. There was a turn away from leisure activities. The bus stopped at Sainsburys; I alighted, crossed the A4 and walked up the hill to Haystack Avenue. I was returning to redo photographs I had taken earlier of the mesolithic flint and I had discovered two grid references which had enabled me to establish the exact position of the ring ditch. I walked up the zigzag path; the grass around it and on top of the mound had been cut, apart from a strip near the road. The stubble was pale, cream coloured, a few fresh green shoots poking through. Docks remained, gone to seed, dark brown. I checked the grid reference for the flint; it had been excavated in a trench so I had decided to place the photograph where the middle of the trench had been. I settled the picture in a pile of grass cuttings and lay down to take some photographs. There was still warmth in the morning air. Winged insects flew, a reminder of high summer. This was one of the most elevated points for miles around. The hill sloped down steeply in front of me; on the lower levels were the new houses, Haystack Avenue, Lancashire Drive, then lower still, the Avon plain – dim in the soft light, fields, trees – a faint burnish on the leaves – and pylons, tall in the landscape, sharp angles subdued by the scattered light.
It was possible to line up trees in the photograph of the site, taken by Wessex Archaeology, with existing trees, in order to help calculate the position of the ring ditch
I took more photographs with the board positioned where the top of the trench had been then walked down to the shops and bought a sandwich and a cup of tea, returning to a bench near the ring ditch site. When the sky turned grey I followed the path round the hill top, to the first turn-off, where I had been many times before in search of the site of the ring ditch. This time, because I had the grid reference for the centre of the ditch, I had been able to calculate the findspots of the shale bracelet and the fragment of pottery. The warning notices had been removed from the barriers, only the tags which held them in place were left, dangling on the steel rods. I found the grid references and photographed the position of the ring ditch; it was near to where I had estimated it to be, its southern edge overlaid by the path. The ragwort had gone over; its yellow mass of blooms changed to puffs of small white seed heads, pale amongst the dark docks, spiked seeds catching on my clothes when I pushed through. Grasses, golden brown and leaning over. Ahead, behind the main barriers, the activity and sounds of the building site were contained; radio voices called out between songs, heavy vehicles, excavators, shifted around, the timbre of their engines changing as they reversed, then edged forward, a deep clang as the metal loading bucket swayed. I continued around the top of the hill, to the second point where the path turned off, and followed a track, well trodden over the summer months, to the point where the hedge and the barrier converged. It seemed likely that Wessex Archaeology would have taken photographs from here, sheltering from the wind which blew drifts of snow across their open site. The view from this new position looked correct. I held up the photograph, taken on a winter’s day; though the proximate landscape had been altered, it was possible to line up the trees in the wood behind the site, with the same trees in the photograph, matching the shapes. I tacked the photographs onto the barrier and photographed the pictures of the shale bracelet and the fragment of pottery with their findspots in view directly behind them.
Just before the storm, on top of the hill
The site where the shale bracelet was found
The findspot of the fragmented, inverted jar
I also wanted to photograph the pictures of the finds from the other side of the hill at the southern edge of the ring ditch; I walked back down and round the fence protecting the trees. Someone had also cut back the foliage on this side, leaving thick broken stems, partly uprooted. I could see once again the narrow, stone covered track leading to a utility access point; it made an easy route back up the hill. I turned off into an area with a few thistles and tufts of soft, green, thin-stemmed grass. The ragwort had passed its best, and other plants too, were dry and leaning over, so I was able to climb down and working between the bank and the barricades, identify the recently calculated findspots, just beyond the fence. Here were brambles, and nettles, not yet in full possession of the ground, and a plant I knew as egg and bacon, growing low. The path behind the fence was overgrown, and, all around, in addition to the ragwort and dock: rosebay willow herb, appearing since my last visit and now, gone to seed, pink spikes turned back and split open. I fixed the photographs of the shale and the pottery fragment onto the fence and photographed them in this new position. From this side, I could see that quite a lot of earth had been moved to create the path. I wondered what the place would look like when it was complete – would there be any sense or trace of what had been here before – not only the round barrow, but the recent fields that had lain on top. The pale fume of the rosebay willow herb, at home on the disturbed ground, coiled over the mound, softening its shape.
The air shifted. Thunder, forecast for 1.30 was late, but it was coming now, a far-off rolling boom. I had been collecting objects from the findspots that I visited, and I had already picked up a stone from the path. As I prepared to leave I noticed a tin lying in the grass, low on the bank; it was a small tin, narrow. I could see the tight knots and tendrils of Celtic design, green on black. I turned it round, the drink was called Dark Thunder. I placed it in a plastic bag, gathered up my bags and left the site. The thunder was louder; the air grew cooler. On reaching the road I realised that I had not photographed the tin in situ. Should I go back? Thunder banged, a din in the sky above the hill. Better to go back now or the moment would be lost. I hastened up the slope, found the path again, and returned to where I had been. I repositioned the tin, photographed it, then climbed back up and down the other side, less careful in my desire to get off the high ground. Now the cracks were in the air, directly above me. Caught in the last dry moments before rain, I tacked down the slope plucking seeds from my pullover, dock clinging on with little dry spurs. The first spots of water fell, dark points on the dusty pavement, then, more thunder. I put on my mac. As I walked up Haystack Avenue the downpour arrived and the rain was all around; tipping from the clouds and covering the road. Down at the A4, I waited at the bus stop, sheltering in a dry spot beneath a tree.
14th February 2025 Final Visit
Hunters Moon site, barriers removed. The ring ditch was siutated towards the lower right of the photograph
The following year I returned to the Hunters Moon Site. I was curious to see how the perimeters of the site had developed and I wanted to rephotograph the picture of the fragment of pottery. I walked up, along Haystack Avenue and followed the path to the summit of the hill. The air was warm, fresh grass grew on the hillside, a few trees had green buds. I reached the leisure area at the top of the hill and turned towards the point where the path branched off towards the building site. The barriers which had surrounded the site of the ring ditch were gone: without them it was much easier to see clearly where the ring ditch, signifying an Early Bronze Age round barrow, had been. The whole space, so contained, so forbidden, was now open. It was midday and people strolled along beside the gorse covered mound, across the edge of the ring ditch. Now, with no barriers, I could use the grid reference to place the photograph in the exact position in which the pottery had been found. The findspot was about half way up the mound. I positioned the photograph on a small ledge of clay. This seasons’s dock leaves were already up; from my position, further down, the higher ones, back-lit, were luminous green. I took some photographs. Then I wandered around for a while. One of the site workers appeared on an opposite mound. He wore a hard hat and had a small bulky case. The next time I looked he was flying a drone. I carried on trying to photograph the whole of the site and climbed up on to the other mound, where the earth, recently dug, had set hard in deep ruts and ridges, a grey terrain without plants. We did not acknowledge each other. I took some more photographs. The drone fluttered around. I moved over to the other side of the site and took a few more photographs then crossed back to the hill top and walked down to the A4 and the bus stop.
Pottery Jar, fragment, Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age. Findspot: Hunters Moon, Chippenham
Energy drink tin, Dark Thunder
Further information about the Finds
The Stone
From the collection of Chippenham Museum, where it was photographed. The photograph was taken to the site and positioned in front of the spot where the stone was excavated by Wessex Archaeology in 2018, prior to the Hunters Moon development. It was found in one of a cluster of Iron Age pits in the lower part of the site near to a small stream. The stone may have been a multi-purpose instrument; two of it’s edges have been worn smooth, while the ends show evidence of wear and tear. The excavation was funded by the developers, Bloor Homes
Acknowledgements
Wessex Archaeology, particularly Tom Wells, author of the report
Thanks to Alan Fuller, Exhibitions and Collections Officer, Chippenham Museum
Photograph published online with the kind permission of Chippenham Museum
References
Wessex Archaeology, 2023. Land at Hunters Moon, Easton Lane, Chippenham, Wiltshire. Post-excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design. ref 86513.3.
Wells, T., 2023. Middle Neolithic mortuary activity, a ring ditch and late prehistoric re-use and occupation at Hunters Moon Chippenham with contributions by Elina Brook, Phil Harding, Lorrain Higbee, Grace Perpetua Jones, Inés López-Dóriga and Jacqueline I. McKinley.
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 111 2023. 16-47
Heritage Gateway reference for the Iron Age Pits and Post Holes where the stone was found: MWI77023
The Flint
Photographed at Chippenham Museum, where it is part of the collection. The photograph was taken to the site and photographed in front of the area where the flint was excavated by Wessex Archaeology in 2012. The excavation was funded by the developers, Bloor Homes
Acknowledgements
Wessex Archaeology, particularly Tom Wells, author of the report
Thanks to Alan Fuller, Exhibitions and Collections Officer, Chippenham Museum
Photograph published online with the kind permission of Chippenham Museum
References
Wessex Archaeology 2023 Land at Hunters Moon, Easton Lane, Chippenham, Wiltshire. Post-excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design. ref 86513.3.
Wells, T., 2023. Middle Neolithic mortuary activity, a ring ditch and late prehistoric re-use and occupation at Hunters Moon Chippenham with contributions by Elina Brook, Phil Harding, Lorrain Higbee, Grace Perpetua Jones, Inés López-Dóriga and Jacqueline I. McKinley.
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 111 2023. 16-47
The Shale Bracelet
On display at Chippenham Museum, where it is part of the collection. The bracelet was photographed and the photograph taken to the Hunters Moon site, and positioned in front of the spot where it was found, on the edge of an Early Bronze Age ring ditch, on a hill overlooking the Avon plain. There is speculation that the ring ditch represented a funerary monument and if so, that the bracelet could have been deposited rather than dropped. The excavation, carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 2018, was funded by the developers, Bloor Homes
Acknowledgements
Wessex Archaeology, particularly Tom Wells, author of the report
Thanks to Alan Fuller, Exhibitions and Collections Officer, Chippenham Museum
Photograph published online with the kind permission of Chippenham Museum
References
Wessex Archaeology 2023 Land at Hunters Moon, Easton Lane, Chippenham, Wiltshire. Post-excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design. ref 86513.3.
Wells, T., 2023. Middle Neolithic mortuary activity, a ring ditch and late prehistoric re-use and occupation at Hunters Moon Chippenham with contributions by Elina Brook, Phil Harding, Lorrain Higbee, Grace Perpetua Jones, Inés López-Dóriga and Jacqueline I. McKinley.
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine Vol. 111 2023. 16-47
Heritage Gateway reference for the early Bronze Age ring ditch where the shale bracelet was found: MWI77020
The Pottery Fragment
Photographed at Chippenham Museum where it is part of the collection. The photograph was taken to the site and photographed in the spot where the fragments were excavated by Wessex Archaeology in 2018. The fragment, one of 162 sherds, from a jar, was found in a pit to the north-east of a Bronze Age ring ditch, possibly representing a funerary mound. It is suggested that, because of its proximity to the ring ditch, the Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age jar could have been deposited. The excavation was funded by the developers, Bloor Homes