Excavations at the site are ongoing (2021-present), with the trenches revealing a complex Iron Age-Roman site, enclosed within three ditches – at least two of which are of successional use. Features include three shafts or wells, 2 of which are 8.5m deep, a substantial aisled building c. 20m x 12m, and a small ancillary building adjacent to a natural sinkhole with a Roman period built well in its base. The 2025 season saw the excavation of a substantial monumentalised entrance area, including the filling in of one of the perimeter ditches, and the creation of a sarsen ‘revetment’ at the edge of the Winterbourne wetland zone, probably during the mid-Imperial Roman period.
Funding from the Roman Society has enabled specialist reports to be commissioned. Initial observations include a large number of dog and horse bones present within the site, as well as at least four neonatal humans, and ceramics analysis shows evidence of 5th and 4th century BCE ceramics in certain contexts.
The presence of presumably stillborn human remains in the vicinity of the small ancillary building is extremely interesting and supports the interpretation of this new site as a sanctuary, and this small building as an altar base or shrine.