EDO3911 - New Cemetery, Poundbury, Dorchester; excavation 2000

Wessex Archaeology was commissioned by the Dorchester Joint Burial Committee, to undertake an archaeological excavation on land adjacent to Poundbury Road, Dorchester to be used as a new cemetery. Two areas, totalling c. 570 m2 were excavated. Area 1 was located to establish whether any archaeological features, deposits or artefacts associated with the Bronze Age enclosed settlement identified in the 1997 evaluation extend into the proposed development area. Area 2 was positioned to explore a confirmed ditch intersection to improve our understanding of the prehistoric field system. Two large pits were found in Area 1. Early Roman pottery in the upper fills of one of these pits suggests that it is of prehistoric date. The proximity and morphological similarities of the second pit suggest that the pits were contemporary, although neither can be more precisely dated. These pits were probably chalk quarries, the material obtained being used to marl the fields or perhaps in the construction and/or remodelling of the Poundbury Camp ramparts. No further evidence for the date of the well-defined ditched field system was recovered during the excavation, although a Bronze Age date still seems likely. Stakeholes found in the base of the ditches cannot be paralleled in the immediate area but probably represent a fence constructed within the ditch itself. The presence of two small pits in the northeast corner of Area 2 may indicate the presence of further settlement activity in this area beyond the limits of the present excavation.