Digging!

I am working on a site near Dorchester, Dorset for three weeks, starting next Monday, and I will be blogging every day, if I am not too knackered! And pics too. This is what has been found so far. Looks Iron Age.

This example is larger, but it gives an idea of the type of settlement we may have here:

Course

My 'Grave Concerns' course is transposed to March 24th at the same location. I was ill over the holidays but ok now, so looking forward to doing the new course. Let me know if you are interested.

The Dorset Cursus

One of the lesser known monuments in Dorset is The Cursus, running from Thickthorn Down to Bokerley Down, at just over 10kl and is the longest example in the UK. It is an average of 80m wide. The ditches are flat based and 3m wide by 1m deep. It was constructed in two stages, 5.8kl from Thickthorn to Bottlebrush Down and accommodates the long barrow on Gussage Down. The Midwinter sun sets behind the mound and is silhouetted on the skyline when observed from the Bottlebrush terminal. The second phase extends NE and another barrow is built into the N bank of this section. Not much can be seen on the ground, but surviving sections are still visible at this point and Thickthorn Down.

William Stuckeley called these large parallel lengths of banks with external ditches by the Latin name of cursus because he thought they might be Roman athletic courses. We now place them in the Neolithic.

Internal features are rare and mostly confined to the terminus. It is thought that they were used as processional routes during rituals, and some have the remains of wooden circles and/or fires located at the ends. Finds of arrowheads suggest hunting connections to some archaeologists, where young men (?) 'prove' themselves on their journey to adulthood.

Crop mark of the cursus terminal with long barrow

The structure will march across the terrain regardless of the landscape, with this example crossing a river and three valleys.

Marked crossing Wyke Down

As usual there can be no definitive answer to the function of cursus monuments, but they are some of the largest and most overlooked ancient structures in the UK.

'Grave Concerns'

My course is starting on the 20th January, 7pm at the Bridport Quaker Meeting House, South Street for 10 weeks (£10 per session). We will be looking at burial and ritual across Europe and Britain.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Dorset Diggers

The West Dorset Diggers Archaeology Group blog is now up and running. Look in.

Poundbury Hillfort

Poundbury - rampart, looking North

I took my students around Poundbury hillfort at the weekend, one of many situated in Dorset, this one being on the outskirts of the county town of Dorchester. When looking from the ramparts to the South Maiden Castle is clearly visible.

Southern rampart with B/A barrow to right

Previously known as Ponebury this is the conflation of the name Puna (probably a local landowner) and an earthwork or burgh. The site was excavated in 1939, 1966 and 1980 and it was found to be developed from an earlier Bronze Age ditched enclosure. It also had three roundbarrows from the same period, but only one survives, although a small mound situated in the eastern sector of the hillfort may also be a barrow.

Originally a univallete enclosure, a second was added and both were revetted in timber. In the later Iron Age this was upgraded to stone. Roundhouses were excavated in the Eastern sector and some of the storage pits also. Looking from the Northern rampart is is obvious that this side of the hillfort is protected by the very marshy ground and the river Frome just below. Taking into account climate change, this would be very much as it was in the Iron Age, but in dryer times this land would have been very fertile, with access to water from the river.  

Southern rampart looking East

We also had a look at the Roman aqueduct, clearly visible looking West from the rampart:

This picture is of the last of three aqueducts constructed by the Romano-British authorities. The first did not work, due to the incline being wrongly engineered and thus the water did not flow, the second did work and this third excavation was never finished. As can be seen it followed the contours of the valley and brought in 5 million litres of water per day to Dorchester from the damed river Frome at Frampton, where this construction is still visible and where excavation found the dam workers huts. The construction of the aqueduct destroyed parts of the Northern rampart, but the hillfort was refurbished by the Romano-British  authorities, with the possible building of a temple next to the remaining barrow, this being visible as a parch-mark and not excavated. A cemetery is located to the East with the remains of mausolia and timber buildings.

In the modern era Napoleonic soldiers were held here and Brunel tried to push through his railway line, which would have finished off the destruction of half of the hillfort begun by the Romano-British. However, the formation of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Society saved the site and forced Brunel to build a tunnel!

In World War I a POW camp was set up here, the off-spring of the Napoleonic camp one hundred years earlier, and in WWII the Observer Corp dug a bunker next to the site and also had a camp.

When walking ones dog on a sunny day, as it was on our visit, it is remarkable that this part of Dorchester has been used in various ways for over two thousand years.    

Prittlewell: 'The King of Bling'

Southend-on-Sea is the largest town in Essex and Prittlewell is an ancient settlement that has now been swallowed up by it. It became famous in its own right in 2003 when diggers from Museum of London Archaeology found the most important site of the last 70 years, due to a road widening scheme. I gave this weeks talk on the site.

The site had been excavated in the 1920s when the rail and road workers uncovered a Saxon cemetery:

 In this instance what was uncovered was of greater importance than anyone could have thought possible. The remains of an undisturbed tomb from the 7th century AD:

 The tomb was 4m square, the largest found in the UK, and one of the first finds was the copper bowl hanging from its peg (the top right hand of this photo). Around 110 objects were lifted over a period of ten days.
These gold crosses were an indication that this person was Christian but still buried in a pagan way:

A unique find was this folding stool, seen in manuscripts but never in reality until this site uncovered an example:

This plain but beautiful gold belt buckle is similar to the more ornate example from Sutton Hoo:

 A startling survival is the remains of a lyre, the most complete example found from this period in the UK:

The most stunning finds, in my opinion, are the blue glass beakers, which give us an insight into the craftsmanship of Anglo-Saxon glass makers at this time:

The quality of the artefacts, both local and imported, make this the tomb of a great noble or even a king. The candidates for his being a king are Saebert (died 616 AD) or Sigeberht II 'The Good' (murdered 653 AD). The dates of the finds indicate that the latter is more likely.