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FARGO HENGIFORM

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A small Neolithic / Bronze Age hengiform enclosure, located within Fargo Plantation and one of the circular monuments known as the Cursus Barrow Group (Monument Number 219681). An irregular hollow, circa 8.5m in diameter, is recognisable at the approximate location of Stone's 1938 excavation, which found a ring ditch surrounding a levelled sub-circular area circa 6 metres by 4 metres which featured entrances or causeways at the northern and southern ends. There may originally have been an external bank. The enclosed central area contained a roughly central sub-rectangular grave pit containing an incomplete inhumation, although it is unclear whether or not the full skeleton was ever present. The inhumation seems to have been accompanied by a Beaker. Two further cremations in shallow holes dug into the floor of the pit, one possibly accompanied by a Food Vessel, seem to have been broadly contemporary. A third cremation had been inserted into the backfilled grave at a later date. A sherd of Peterborough Ware, a fragment of bluestone, and some antlers were recovered from the ditch. The earthworks were observed by English Heritage in November 2010 during a rapid field investigation (Level 1 survey) of Fargo South as part of the Stonehenge WHS Landscape Project.

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SU 11254280. Fargo Grave, Class II henge. (1)

This site, excavated by Stone in 1938 consisted of a small oval ditch with an external bank broken by causeways on the N and S. At the centre of the enclosed area was a square grave cut in the chalk on the bottom of which lay parts of a skeleton accompanied by an A-beaker, a cremation with a food vessel of English Ridged type, and an unaccompanied cremation, all apparently contemporary and sealed by an undisturbed layer of chalk rubble. A second unaccompanied cremation lay higher in the filling of the grave, and a sherd of Peterborough ware, possibly a stray, was found in the ditch. Most of the finds are in Salisbury Museum. (2)

Fargo henge falls in an area of dense coniferous trees and could not be identified. It is probably that any surface remains were eradicated during ploughing prior to the re-afforestation. (3)

SU 112428; A sub-oval enclosure with an internal diameter c. 3.96-6.10m, no surface features visible. It has an asymmetrical outline with the north causeway much wider than the south. The central pit was turf lined and contained one inhumation and two cremations. A secondary cremation was also present. East of this pit was another pit containing a cist and cremation. (4)

The feature falls within the area mapped from aerial photographs by both RCHME's Salisbury Plain Training Area NMP and EH's Stonehenge WHS Mapping Project. It has not been included on the survey maps because it is covered by trees, and no further information could be added from aerial photographic evidence. (8)

An irregular hollow, circa 8.5m in diameter, is recognisable at the approximate location of this excavated site. The earthworks were observed by English Heritage in November 2010 during a rapid field investigation (Level 1 survey) of Fargo South as part of the Stonehenge WHS Landscape Project. (9-10)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) 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 LV Grinsell: Archaeological Gazetteer - Flat graves Page(s)28

( 2) by R J C Atkinson, C M Piggott and N K Sandars 1951 Excavations at Dorchester, Oxon: first report. Sites I, II, IV, V and VI, with a chapter on henge monuments

Page(s)84, 102

( 3) Field Investigators Comments

F1 ANK 31-JUL-70

(4) by A F Harding ; with G E Lee 1987 Henge monuments and related sites of Great Britain : air photographic evidence and catalogue

BAR British series1 (1974) - 175 Page(s)292-4

(5) Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England 1979 Stonehenge and its environs: monuments and land use

Page(s)7

(6) The Wiltshire archaeological and natural history magazine

Stone, JFS. An Early Bronze Age Grave in Fargo Plantation near Stonehenge. Page(s)357-70

(7) by Frances Blore, et al. 1995 Archaeological assessment of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site and its surrounding landscape

Record numbers 559, 560 Page(s)188-9

(8) RCHME/EH Aerial Photographers Comment

English Heritage: Stonehenge WHS Mapping Project

(9) Field Investigators Comments

Sharon Bishop/16-NOV-2010/English Heritage: Stonehenge WHS Landscape Project

(10) Research Department Report Series

Komar A M & Bishop, S 'Fargo South.' Stonehenge World Heritage Site Landscape Project. Archaeological survey report. RDRS 96-2010. Swindon: English Heritage. 96-2010

RELATED MONUMENTS

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CURSUS BARROW GROUP
AMESBURY

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A Neolithic and Bronze Age round barrow cemetery located mostly south of the western end of the Cursus (Monument Number 219546). The cemetery extends...

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