Archaeologists from the Wiltshire Archaeology Service, which is based in the History Centre, have been involved with agreeing and monitoring work at Durrington that has revealed important remains from the Ice Age through to the modern period. The site had been home to buildings and staff of the Ministry of Defence (and its predecessors) since the 19^th century. Excavations on the site (which are still going on) have shown, however, that its history goes back even further. The site is still being excavated by Wessex Archaeology on behalf of Persimmon Homes South Coast as part of their planning permission.

Features found on the site so far include soils from the last glaciation – sealed by the later chalk; a Neolithic pit and posthole alignment; a Neolithic rammed gravel surface around a geological sink-hole; Bronze Age cremations; Iron Age storage pits; a very large Conquest period (early 1^st century AD) ditch, which has a later Roman-British period recut; a human burial (probably of late Roman-British date); pits and post-holes from the Romano-British period, including one with a large number of Roman gaming counters; Romano-British enclosure ditches; a Roman Road; medieval ditches; and a post-medieval horse burial. Work is continuing, so we look forward to finding even more of this exciting archaeology!

The most spectacular feature of the site was the large ditch, which appears to have been defensive in nature, with the chalk from its excavation being used to form a bank on the inside of the ditch. The ditch itself is approximately 9m wide by 4-5m deep and is roughly V-shaped. Excavating sections by hand has proved challenging, given the depth of the ditch, and so a series of steps have been cut in order to keep the people safe. This also allows a better idea of its scale! One section of the ditch also revealed a much earlier soil – from within the last glaciation – sealed beneath the chalk. Although there was no evidence for people being in the immediate vicinity in that soil, land snails were found.

One hand-dug section of the 1^st century AD ditch. The later Romano-British recut can be seen just to the right of the person standing at the top. The earlier glacial soil is underneath the chalk on the left hand edge of the ditch.

The ditch was not, however, the earliest example of humans using this site. A series of Neolithic (between about 4,000 and 2,000 BC) pits and large postholes ran across part of the site. Some of the postholes appear to show that the large posts they supported were burnt whilst they were still in place. Another Neolithic feature was a gravel surface placed around the edge of a geological sink hole. This surface contained many worked flints and the waste material from the production of more.

Wessex Archaeology staff cleaning the Neolithic stone surface around the sink hole (above) and an example of the flint tools found (below).

Large numbers of later Romano-British pits and ditches were found within the area inside the large ditch, including another sinkhole with a stone layer around it, similar to the Neolithic one. This layer proved to be Romano-British in date and appeared to have been put on the edge of the sinkhole to allow a stable footing when people were dumping material into the sinkhole.

A late Iron Age or Romano-British storage pit being excavated. 

 Another important feature from the Romano-British period was a road. This ran up to and then crossed the large ditch, which had filled in by the time the road was built. The road, which had been damaged in places by the later MoD buildings on the site, was made from two different rammed gravel surfaces, with flanking ditches.

Part of the rammed gravel surfaces of the Roman road.

There are many other features that have been excavated so far, including a human burial, probably of late Romano-British to Anglo-Saxon date, and a post-medieval burial of a horse – with no legs!

And finally – another section of the big ditch!

The excavations have so far shown a long and exciting history for this site, so we will keep you posted on any further developments!

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