EDO3724 - Maiden Castle Road (Dorchester By-pass Site 6); excavation

Fieldwalking, Trial excavation and geophysical survey indicated a high degree of archaeological activity in the area immediately north of Maiden Castle Road. A large area excavation was undertaken in summer 1987 by Wessex Archaeology, in advance of the Dorchester By-pass construction. The excavation revealed features from the Neolithic/Bronze Age to the medieval period. The main features were an earlier prehistoric quarry, a Bronze Age pit, an earlier Roman ditched trackway,Roman quarries and pits, a square enclosure with central burial, a Roman semi-cellared building, later Roman pits, three later Roman buildings, a later Roman inhumation cemetery and associated ditches, and several possible medieval field boundaries.