[1] The site was first occupied around 3800 BC, although the only evidence is a series of pits apparently dug by an agrarian society using Hembury pottery.

[citation needed] During a later phase, c. 3700 BC,[2] three concentric segmented ditches were placed around the hilltop site, the outermost with a diameter of 365 metres.

Later occupation layers contained early Peterborough ware, then the later Mortlake and Fengate varieties.

The camp remained in use throughout the rest of the Neolithic with Grooved ware and Beaker potsherds having been found in later deposits.

Michael Dames has proposed a composite theory of seasonal rituals in an attempt to explain Windmill Hill and its associated sites: West Kennet Long Barrow, the Avebury henge, The Sanctuary, and Silbury Hill.