Around 45 members, visitors and friends heard David Dawson’s lecture.

David is the director of the Wiltshire Museum at Devizes and an experienced field archaeologist.

His talk, entitled Gold from the Time of Stonehenge, explained the chronology of the area from 8000 BC when there was the earliest evidence of hunters and gatherers at Stonehenge, to 2.500 BC when the tall Sarsen Stones arrived at the site.

David told members that excavations at Bush Barrow, around half a mile to the south of Stonehenge on the Normanton Down ridge, revealed many exciting archaeological objects buried with the Bush Barrow chieftain, dating from around 2,200 BC.

He said that buried close to the Bush Barrow chieftain is the “Lady from Across the Sea”, who had been cremated and many objects buried with her. These included beads, cups and gold jewellery.

The final lecture for 2014 will take place on October 16, when Lucille Campey will outline Baverstock’s early history. Now part of Dinton, but once a parish in its own right, Baverstock appears to have suffered depopulation as a result of the plague which struck the village in the Middle Ages.

In her talk entitled Life Goes on: How Baverstock coped with the Black Death of 1348, Ms Campey will attempt to explain what happened during this critical time. All welcome. Free to members, £2.50 for non-members.