page_title: Bathampton Down
section_title: Prehistoric
hierarchical_section_title: Bathampton Down / History / Prehistoric
caption_attribution_description: Map of earthworks at Bathampton Down, Somerset, England.
context_page_description: Bathampton Down, is a flat limestone plateau in Bathampton overlooking Bath, in Somerset near the River Avon, England.
  There is evidence of man's activity at the site since the Mesolithic period including Bathampton Camp, an Iron Age hillfort or stock enclosure. It has also been used for quarrying and is now used for a golf course.
context_section_description: The first evidence of human activity is from the Mesolithic period and consists of a dispersed collection of flint finds, including hammerstones, cores, fragments of axes and arrowheads. The remains of a stone circle were described in the 19th century; however no evidence remains.
  Four Bronze Age round barrows (tumuli) have been reported. There are also tentative findings of a probable bowl barrow and a
  possible confluent barrow. In one round barrow a small burial urn was recovered. Many of the barrows were opened by John Skinner in the 18th Century.
  Bathampton Camp may have been a univallate Iron Age hill fort or stock enclosure. The rectangular enclosure approximately 650 metres (2,133 ft) (east-west) by 500 metres (1,640 ft) (north-south) has been identified, which may be a Medieval earthwork. The eastern side needs no protection, because the ground falls away steeply to the River Avon, 170 metres (558 ft) below. There is a single rampart and flat-bottomed ditch on the other three sides (univallate).
  The site was excavated in 1904-5 and in 1952–4.  Human and animal remains were found, also pottery and flint flakes. Small fragments of pottery were found during excavations in the 1960s which have been dated to the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age. The area is a Scheduled monument.
  During the Iron Age the area surrounding the camp had a settled agrarian landscape. There is a network of Celtic fields of some 0.4 hectares (0.99 acres) around the area now covered by the golf course. These are difficult to date but are thought to originate in the Iron Age and may have still been in use into the Roman Empire era. The area to the south east, which is known as Bushey Norwood and includes part of the ramparts and some surviving upright stones, was given to the National Trust by Miss M.E. Mallett in 1960.
caption: Wansdyke and other earthworks at Bathampton Down
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