Dorcester - Site IX View all content for Dorcester - Site IX (1 post)

Details of site on Pastscape Traces of a ditched field system visible as cropmarks on air photographs and partly excavated in 1947-52 during work focused on the Dorchester On Thames cursus (SU 59 NE 5) and adjacent monuments. Located towards the northwestern end of the cursus, the system comprises a rectilinear arrangement of narrow paired ditches orientated roughly northeast-southwest. The orientation is different from that of the cursus, which the field system cuts across, but is the same as that of the large henge SU 59 NE 3. Atkinson et al (1951) believed the ditches to be of Neolithic origin because of the apparent discovery of Abingdon style Neolithic pottery in the primary ditch fill. However, later examination of the sherds (in Bradley and Chambers 1988; Whittle et al 1992) suggested that a Middle or Late Bronze Age date was far more likely. "Site IX" (SU569958). A complex of shallow linear ditches excavation 1948 when threatened by gravel digging. Two separate constructions:- (a) A large enclosure, probably sub-rectangular, of which only the S.E. corner was excavated. Its ditch was broken here and antedated the East ditch of the Cursus. (b) A group of ditches, of which the chief pair formed a "droveway" about 12' wide which crossed the silted East ditch of the Cursus, passed through the gap in the earlier enclosure and continued South for about 400 yards to cross "Site VIII" [Oxon 46 SW. 4. D.T.] (SU 570956) diagonally. These ditches contained Ne pottery of Abingdon type. [centred at SU 56959584]. (1) Centred at SU 56989575. (2) "It is clear that the Cursus and sites VIII & IX are all of Neolithic date". (3) Site IX is a complex of linear ditches of at least two structural periods, the first of which is earlier and the second later than the construction of the Cursus. The main feature of the second period is a `droveway' found of two parallel ditches which runs S. through site VIII, cutting its ditches and that of the Cursus. Pottery of W. Neolithic (Abingdon) type (a) occurs in a primary position in the `droveway' complex. (4) Traces of a ditched field system visible as cropmarks on air photographs and partly excavated in 1947-52 during work focused on the Dorchester On Thames cursus (SU 59 NE 5) and adjacent monuments. Located towards the northwestern end of the cursus, the system comprises a rectilinear arrangement of narrow paired ditches orientated roughly northeast-southwest. The orientation is different from that of the cursus, which the field system cuts across, but is the same as that of the large henge SU 59 NE 3. Atkinson et al (1951) believed the ditches to be of Neolithic origin because of the apparent discovery of Abingdon style Neolithic pottery in the primary ditch fill. However, later examination of the sherds (in Bradley and Chambers 1988; Whittle et al 1992) suggested that a Middle or Late Bronze Age date was far more likely. Although the fabric is not entirely dissimilar to Early Neolithic wares, the sherds (which represent about half of a flat-based pot) belongs either to local Deverel-Rimbury or Post-Deverel-Rimbury traditions. Note that further elements of field systems probably of the same date and same broad orientation are visible as cropmarks and were encountered at the oppoiste, southeastern end of the cursus during excavations in 1981. (5-7) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE TEXT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society Oxoniensia 13, 1948 Page(s)67 (2) by R J C Atkinson, C M Piggott and N K Sandars 1951 Excavations at Dorchester, Oxon: first report. Sites I, II, IV, V and VI, with a chapter on henge monuments Page(s)60 (3) Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society Oxoniensia 13, 1948 Page(s)67 (4) by R J C Atkinson, C M Piggott and N K Sandars 1951 Excavations at Dorchester, Oxon: first report. Sites I, II, IV, V and VI, with a chapter on henge monuments Page(s)60 (4a) The Antiquaries journal : journal of the Society of Antiquaries of London 7, 1927 Page(s)438FF (4b) The Antiquaries journal : journal of the Society of Antiquaries of London 8, 1928 Page(s)461FF (5) Oxford journal of archaeology Bradley R and R Chambers. A New Study of the Cursus Complex at Dorchester On Thames 7, 1988 Page(s)271-289 (6) Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society - Whittle A et al. Excavations in the Neolithic and Bronze Age Complex at Dorchester-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, 1947-1952 and 1981. 58, 1992 Page(s)143-201 (7) A Barclay, J Harding (eds) 1999 Pathways and Ceremonies: the cursus monuments of Britain and Ireland - Loveday R. Dorchester-on-Thames - ritual complex or ritual landscape? Page(s)49-63

Posted by Chance 5th February 2012ce

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