Windmill Hill

Neolithic causewayed camp north of Avebury, Wiltshire, England, the type site of the culture of the same name. The camp of c 3350 BC has three ditch circuits which are part of the Avebury complex of Neolithic ritual monuments. Windmill Hill ware sensu stricto (decorated with grooves and pits), was closely followed by the oldest (Ebbsfleet) variant of Peterborough ware - 3330 +/- 150. More recent levels have Peterborough styles, grooved ware, and beaker sherds. An earthen long barrow has a radiocarbon date of 4030 +/- 150 and there is a cemetery of Bronze Age round barrows. This culture and that of Peterborough were the two first main food-growing and cattle-raising peoples. Stone axes, coarse scrapers, and pressure-flaked leaf-shaped arrowheads were used. They raised pigs, cattle, goats, and had dogs for herding; cereals were grown. The pottery is now divided into separate traditions (Grimston-Lyles Hill, Hembury, Abingdon), and the rest of the cultural content, causewayed camps, long barrows, leaf-shaped arrowheads and polished flint or other stone axes, is now regarded as simply 'British Neolithic'. The culture existed until c 2500 BC.

Causewayed camp in Wiltshire, which has given its name to the Early Neolithic culture of southern England, of the 4th millennium bc. Windmill Hill is the largest of the known causewayed camps the outer of the three concentric discontinuous ditches has a diameter of c365 metres. The site has an occupation that pre-dates the causewayed camp, dated to c2950 bc (c3730 bc), while the enclosure itself has a date of c2550 bc (c3300 bc). It is thought that the site may have served as a meeting place for fairs and other activities for dispersed communities in the surrounding area.