Fieldwork was carried out during August and September 1994 as part of Bournemouth University's ongoing research into the late Neolithic henge monuments of Knowlton Rings. Work comprised geophysical survey, contour survey, and sample excavation of the Southern Circle. This is the largest henge in the complex, and the fifth largest in Wessex, with a ditch within a bank, with a diameter of 220m. A trench 3mx30m was excavated across a badly damaged portion of the bank in the hope of retrieving environmental and dating evidence. This revealed that the bank had frequently been cut by ploughing, and survived at most to a height of 0.2m. Nonetheless, sections of well-preserved buried soil were located, and within this was a considerable quantity of waste flint.
Alongside this bank were found two flat-bottomed gullies, c 0.5m deep, one on either side of the preserved buried soil, suggesting that they defined the original extent of the bank. It would appear that these were dug very shortly after the bank was constructed and were then allowed to fill naturally. Neither gully contained finds.
The major feature of the excavation, the ditch, was considerably deeper than was predicted,
with an estimated depth of 5.7m. For health and safety reasons it was only possible to excavate the ditch to
a depth of 4.5m (the remainder was augered); nonetheless, the high quality of environmental evidence
warrants excavation of these lower sediments at a future date. The ditch was originally near-vertically sided,
although it began to erode very soon after construction. The lower fills were fairly clean chalk, succeeded
by silts. Within these fills were three stabilisation horizons, each associated with concentrations of flint
debris, charcoal, and some bone. About half way up the fill sequence a short-lived attempt had been made
to shore up the sides of the ditch with a line of posts on one side and a line of fencing on the other. A piece
of carved chalk was found at the base of one of the posts.
Assessment of the molluscan evidence shows considerable change in the environment during the use and decline of the monument, and it is hoped that this will be enhanced by further work on the pollen and soil micromorphological evidence. During 1995 a further season of geophysical survey of the remaining available part of the Southern Circle is anticipated.
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