Figsbury Ring

This hillfort in Firsdown Parish covers some 15.5 acres with original entrances to the east and west. The southern entrance was cut sometime after 1723 as it does not appear on Stukeley's plan of that date.

This hillfort is somewhat different to others in Wiltshire in having an internal ditch in addition to the typical external ones. The one external ditch has been shown to be too shallow to have provided all the material for the rampart that rises above it. Maud Cunnington suggested that the remainder of the construction material came from the internal ditch. The internal ditch is a regular distance inside the bank and Cunnnington's excavations demonstrated that the material in this ditch matches that in the bank. Others have suggested that the inner ditch is a circle similar to the early henge at Avebury but no finds of Neolithic date have been recovered from it making this unlikely.

The evidence suggests that Figsbury Ring was only occupied intermittently, either for gatherings or as a place of refuge. Excavations have found evidence of long term habitation; scatters of pottery and some animal bone but no signs of houses. The bulk of the pottery is of an Early Iron Age type known as All Cannings ware. It was found in clusters inside the inner ditch and under the south western stretch of the rampart.

A Bronze Age leaf bladed sword said to have been found inside Figsbury Ring is held by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The style of this sword indicates that it dates from the Late Bronze Age or Iron Age.

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