Hambledon Hill, Dorset, England, Volumes 1 and 2 : Excavation and survey of a Neolithic Monument Complex and its Surrounding Landscape

A programme of excavation and survey directed by Roger Mercer between 1974 and 1986 demonstrated that Hambledon was the site of an exceptionally large and diverse complex of earlier Neolithic earthworks, including two causewayed enclosures, two long barrows and several outworks, some of them defensive. The abundant cultural material preserved in its ditches and pits provides information about numerous aspects of contemporary society, among them conflict, feasting, the treatment of the human corpse, exchange, stock management and cereal cultivation. The distinct depositional signatures of various parts of the complex reflect their diverse use. The scale and manner of individual episodes of construction hint at the levels of organisation and co-ordination obtaining in contemporary society.Use of the complex and the construction of its various elements were episodic and intermittent, spread over 300-400 hundred years, and did not entail lasting settlement. As well as stone axe heads exchanged from remote

Iron Age and Romano-British activity may reflect the proximity of Hod Hill. A small pagan Saxon cemetery may relate to settlement in the Iwerne valley which it overlooks. [Publisher's text]