An Insect Fauna of Late Bronze Age Date from Wilsford, Wiltshire

Abstract

The Wilsford shaft, discovered at Normanton Gorse, Wiltshire, was first described by Ashbee (1963). It is one of the earlier of a series of artificial shafts or ritual wells which are a feature of later prehistoric Europe (Schwarz 1962; Piggott 1965). They are either associated with ceremonial structures and burials, or else are in isolation. Cults centring upon them were current in Roman times. The English examples, their associations and usages, have recently been discussed by Ross (1967 s.v.). Before excavation, the Wilsford shaft was a 'pond-barrow', i.e. a circular dish-like depression surrounded by a bank which had been destroyed by total agriculture. Such 'barrows', some of considerable size, are a regular feature of the barrow cemeteries about Stonehenge (Piggott 1951, Fig. 1) and are found elsewhere in Wiltshire. Excavation of this pond-barrow disclosed an inverted conical cavity which proved to be the weathering cone of a vertical, cylindrical shaft 6 ft in diameter and almost 100 ft (30 m ) deep (Fig. 1). At this depth a fault in the chalk through which water could enter the shaft was encountered and this may have been the reason that the original excavators stopped digging. The shaft had been dug in vertical stages, and checked by plumbing and a template. Deep antler pick marks showed where deviations from the vertical had been corrected and the sides had been dressed with a broad-bladed metal axe. Seams of flint had been broken through. Near the top of the shaft artifacts of Recent, Roman and Iron Age cultures were recovered while at about 60 ft the greater part of a late Bronze Age pot was found. The bottom of the shaft contained a considerable quantity of organic material. This included much wood, both the remains of fabricated containers and also timber, broken branches, twigs and other pieces. Also present were seeds, leaves, cereal straw, moss, possibly fungi and pollen as well as pieces of rope and hide. Artifacts included a shale ring, bone pins and amber beads. Until the time of its excavation by Mr Ashbee and his colleagues the lowest part of the shaft's contents appears to have been more or less continuously waterlogged, thus being preserved in conditions normally only met with in bogs and lakes. This would account for the remarkably fine state of preservation of the insect remains. A sample consisting of pieces of wood collected at depths between 96 ft 6 in. and 97 ft 6 in. (29.4 m and 29*8 m) was submitted to the National Physical Laboratory for radiocarbon dating and an age of 3330 + 90 B.P. was obtained (N.P.L. 74) (Ashbee 1966). It was from this layer that the insect remains described here were obtained. The material examined, which was all recovered from the bottom 6 ft (1 8 m) of the shaft, filled eighteen jars and consisted of a mixture of silt, small fragments of chalk and a mass of comminuted wood and other vegetable matter. It had been mixed with water, alcohol and glycerine to preserve it. It was estimated that the volume of this sludge examined for insects was about 23 1.