Corntown causewayed enclosure

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The monument comprises the remains of a causewayed enclosure, dating to the Neolithic period (c. 4,400 - 2,300 BC). The enclosure is visible as a cropmark in a field under arable cultivation and comprises multiple rings of interrupted ditches. A large assemblage of Neolithic worked flint has been recovered from the area of the site.

Large earthwork enclosures, known as causewayed enclosures or 'causewayed camps', were built throughout the Neolithic in much of southern Britain. Many gaps and causeways break the banks and ditches of these enclosures, which gives rise to their name. They seem to have served many purposes - settlement, defence, ritual and excarnation (where bodies were 'defleshed' before burial by exposure to animals or birds). The ditches of such sites (long since filled in and ploughed over) often show up as cropmarks visible on aerial photographs. However, much archaeological information can remain, both within the ditches and in pits and postholes within the central area of the monument.

The monument is of national importance for its potential to enhance our knowledge of prehistoric ceremonial practices. The monument is an important relic of a prehistoric ritual landscape and retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of intact ritual deposits and environmental and structural evidence.

The area scheduled comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.