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RYBURY CAUSEWAYED ENCLOSURE

ALTERNATIVE NAME:

RYBURY CAMP

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The Rybury causewayed enclosure survives as earthworks. It has an approximate area of 2 hectares and is obscured by an Iron Age hillfort, beyond which the eastern part of the circuit extends as a well preserved earthwork, with an apparently continuous bank and a segmented ditch. It consists of a single circuit encircling the summit of the spur except to the north where it dips down the slope. A continuous bank with a clearly causewayed ditch 150 metres to the south may be contemporary.
It remains unexcavated save for a single trench cut by Desmond Bonney in 1963. The ditch was flat-bottomed and 2 metres deep. Over 600 waste flint flakes were found throughout, but no worked implements. A few teeth and fragments of bone were also retrieved. Sherds from a single decorated Neolithic Bowl which had eroded from above the inner edge of the southern section of the hillfort ditch were also found.

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(SU 08326397) Rybury Camp (NR). (1)

Rybury Camp. A Neolithic causewayed enclosure whose complete plan is uncertain, with an Iron Age hill-fort superimposed. The interior is extensively disturbed by chalk pits. The segmented Neolithic ditch which emerges as an arc from beneath the hill-fort rampart at the east appears to continue upwards to curve round the summit of the knoll inside the west rampart. Outwork 240 yards to the south, comprises a segmented ditch, roughly semi-circular in plan, set round the outer side of a smaller knoll. Much disturbed by chalk digging, Curwen suggests it is Neolithic also. A trial trench cut by D J Bonney in 1963, for RCHM, in the outer ditch of the earlier earthwork yielded over 600 flint flakes but no worked implements, and a few teeth and bones.
In 1964 and 1967 Neolithic sherds, including an example of the Abingdon type of Windmill Hill ware were found by Mrs R Kennard. They are now in Devizes Museum. (Acc No 25/67). (2-6)

The earthworks at Rybury comprise three concentric enclosures on a hilltop and a scarped rampart and ditch straddling an approach ridge to the SW.
SU 08326395: The three concentric enclosures consist of an unfinished univallate enclosure of IA settlement type, overlying a "two ring" Neolithic causewayed camp.
The two oval enclosures of the causewayed camp are approximately 180.0m long N-S by 160.0m, and 130.0m N-S by 100.0m overall respectively. The inner enclosure comprises a bank up to 1.0m high, destroyed in the N and S by modern quarrying which also precludes the positive identification of causeways.
The outer enclosure survives as a scarp slope up to 2.3m high with an outer ditch 0.2m deep and 3.0m wide, cut by causeways which are particularly noticeable in the NE. This outer enclosure is overlaid by the later IA settlement on all but its NE side.
The IA enclosure comprises a ditch, averaging 1.5m deep, with an outer counterscarp bank rising 1.1m above it. The enclosure is 190.0m long N-S by about 150.0m overall, with a simple break in the S, Probably indicating the original entrance. Although the SE section of the enclosure is severely mutilated by modern quarrying the ditch is clearly incomplete, with several gang-work type banks still crossing it. These are particularly noticeable in the E. SU 08476372: To the SE of the main causewayed camp, a roughly 'L' shaped scarp, 2.2m high, with an outer causewayed ditch, 0.2m deep, has N and W arms 40.0m and 60.0m long respectively. It is situated in an easily defended position on a ridge approaching the main camp. There is no evidence to suggest that this feature was ever a complete enclosure, and it is possibly an unfinished outer work to the IA settlement.
Resurveyed at 1:2500, utilizing RCHM plan at 1:1250. (7-8)

The site was surveyed by RCHME during the 1960's, prior to the small scale excavations carried out by Desmond Bonney in 1963. For further information see archive report (9).

In 1995, RCHME carried out an analytical earthwork survey of the site, as part of a national project to record industry and enclosure in the Neolithic period. The overlying Iron Age hillfort and presumed Post Medieval chalk or flint extraction pits were allocated new NMR numbers (respectively SU 06 SE 63 and 64), to enhance the record.
The causewayed enclosure is essentially as described by previous sources. It seems to have comprised two circuits of bank and ditch, both causewayed, enclosing an area of c. The earthworks are most difficult to trace on the south-west, where they are overlain by the later hillfort and damaged by the post-medieval quarrying.
For further information, see Level 3 archive report and earthwork plan at 1:1000 scale, held in the Archive. A number of colour photographs were taken, subsequent to the field survey, but as part of the same project; these are also available through the Archive. (10)

Additional reference. (11)

The Neolithic causewayed enclosure, described by the previous authorities, has also been mapped, at 1:10,000 scale, from aerial photographs. The site has been photographed numerous times from the 1920s to the 1990s. (12-16)

Rybury causewayed enclosure was included in a research programme into the dating of the early Neolithic causewayed enclosures of southern Britain and of Ireland, using chronological estimates produced by Bayesian statistical analysis of radiocarbon dates. It has an approximate area of 2 hectares and is obscured by an Iron Age hillfort, beyond which the eastern part of the circuit extends as a well preserved earthwork, with an apparently continuous bank and a segmented ditch. It consists of a single circuit encircling the summit of the spur except to the north where it dips down the slope. A continuous bank with a clearly causewayed ditch 150 metres to the south may be contemporary. Sherds from a single decorated Neolithic bowl which had eroded from above the inner edge of the southern section of the hillfort ditch were also found. (17)

Scheduled. The designated record of the causewayed enclosure can be accessed online from the National Heritage List for England. (18-19

SOURCE TEXT

(1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1961

(2) Antiquity Publications Limited Antiquity

Curwen, EC. Neolithic Camps (pp38-40) 4, 1930 Page(s)22-54

(3) The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine

Excavations and fieldwork in Wiltshire 1963: Rybury Camp, by D Bonney 59, 1964 Page(s)185

(4) The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine

Smith, IF. Neolithic pottery from Rybury Camp 60, 1965 Page(s)127

(5) The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine

Accessions to the museum 63, 1968 Page(s)118

(6) edited by D D A Simpson 1971 Economy and settlement in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain and Europe; papers delivered at a conference held in the University of Leicester, December 1969

Smith, IF. Causewayed Enclosures (p109-110) Page(s)89-112

(7) General reference

RCHM plan at 1250 scale.

(8) Field Investigators Comments

F1 MHB 31-OCT-73

(9) Field Investigators Comments

RCHME Field Investigation 1960s DJ Bonney

(10) General reference

RCHME: Industry and Enclosure in the Neolithic: Rybury Camp Survey

(11) edited by R B Pugh and Elizabeth Crittall 1957 A history of Wiltshire: volume 1, part 1

The Victoria history of the counties of England Grinsell, L. Archaeological Gazetteer. Page(s)23

(12) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR SU0864/7 (ALK 7437/281) 15-JUL-1924

(13) Vertical aerial photograph reference number

RAF 540/958 3206-7 01-DEC-1952

(14) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR SU0863/7 (WAP 11710/6 (AK 963/2)) 29-JAN-1974

(15) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR SU0864/24 (4812/49) 19-MAR-1993

(16) Oblique aerial photograph reference number

NMR SU0863/49 (4791/35) 19-MAR-1993

(17) Alasdair Whittle, Alex Bayliss and Frances Healy 2011 Gathering Time: Dating the Early Neolithic Enclosures of Southern Britain and Ireland

Chapter 3.3, Rybury. 1 Page(s)102-103

(18) Scheduled Monument Notification

Scheduling date not available

(19) World Wide Web page

English Heritage 2011, The National Heritage List for England, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1005695 [Accessed 14-JUL-2011]

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