Before the team reached the prehistoric archaeology we had to excavate the later archaeological levels above.
The site appears to have extensive, mostly settlement-related archaeology from the Late Saxon and medieval period in all four trenches.
Among the Saxon features are ditches, pits, and post holes. The presence of Saxon archaeology is curiously widespread, which begs the question: has the scale of Late Saxon Avebury been underestimated?

Saxon bone comb fragment
The large medieval site seems to include a major boundary running the length of the largest trench (Trench 1) which follows a different alignment to the Saxon ditches. There are also quarry pits and a very deep, square pit (pictured below). At the moment we don’t know the function of this unusual feature.

(c) National Trust/Briony Clifton
It’s with great thanks to the fantastic Living with Monuments Project team, specifically Southampton and Leicester Universities, and to the Arts & Humanities Research Council that we are able to carry out the excavations in and around Avebury.
2019 will bring further updates and more excitement (prehistoric or otherwise!) for you to follow!

Trench 4 diggers! (c) National Trust/Briony Clifton