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

Details of site on Pastscape A long subrectangular enclosure of Earlier Neolithic date, part of a complex of monuments at Dorchester on Thames. The site was excavated in the late 1940s in advance of gravel extraction. The enclosure is cut by the Dorchester cursus (SU 59 NE 5, which it pre-dates, but whose northwest-southeast alignment it shares. The enclosure may have featured an internal bank. Three causeways were evident - one midway along its southern side, one towards the end of the northern side, near the northeast corner, and the third in the middle of the short southeast side. This last was later bisected by the southern ditch of the cursus. Two narrow parallel ditches cut across the site on a different alignment. They post-date the cursus. Finds were few - part of a human jaw was found within the site, prompting suggestions that it may have been a mortuary enclosure. The upper ditch fills included Peterborough Ware sherds and some flint implements. The jaw was not within an observed feature, but was found at surface level following mechanical cutting. "Site VIII" (SU571955) excav. 1948 when threatened by gravel-digging. A sub-rectangular enclosure 210' long by 70' wide defined by a ditch with internal bank. Small gaps at NE corner & in the centre of the W. side and a larger gap in the S. end. Traversed longitudinally by the west ditch of the Cursus, which was proved to be later, & which passes through the S. gap & is broken itself just to the South. Much Ebbsfleet or Peterborough pottery in Cursus ditch & upper filling of enclosure ditch. Prob. a ritual structure & may be connected with a type of Wessex Long Barrow. [SU 5702 9565: D.T.]. (1) [Sited to SU 57009570]. (2) Inf. as T.I. Pottery stated to be Ebbsfleet. F.A.H. . (3) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE TEXT -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society Oxoniensia 13, 1948 Page(s)66 (2) Field Investigators Comments F1 FKB 09-SEP-52 (2a) 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 (3) Field Investigators Comments F2 FKB 09-SEP-52 (3b) 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 (4) 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

Posted by Chance 5th February 2012ce

Comments (0)
You must be logged in to add a comment