EDO6458 - Poundbury Phase 3 & 4, Dorchester; excavation 2013

Excavation in 2013 was commissioned by the Duchy of Cornwall as part of ongoing development to take place on a narrow strip of land that had been formerly inaccessible to excavation. The 0.225ha area was situated between two sites to the north of Poundbury Farm excavated in 2007. The modern overburden was removed by machine excavator to the first recognisable archaeological horizon and then cleaned by hand. Two Middle Bronze Age cremation-related features, possibly cenotaphs or memento mori, were found not far from similarly-dated cremation burials recorded previously. The archaeologists noted a distinct lack of evidence for Iron Age activity on or in the near vicinity of the site. The remains of a well-built masonry-lined oven or kiln structure, featuring an iron doorpost had clearly been used, though it has not been possible to determine a particular function. Romano-British inhumation burials were found in the northern part of the site. Three were in the local Durotrigian style - flexed and usually with a ceramic vessel or vessels. Another 10 burials held the remains of more standard Romano-British style burials - coffined, extended and supine. Four of the burials included complete lamb carcasses, laid along or at the end of the coffin. One burial, a child of around 10 years of age, had been decapitated as part of the post-mortem rites in addition to a lamb offering. Little evidence was found of occupation in the vicinity during succeeding periods, and it appears that the site formed part of a large expanse of farmland to the west of Dorchester from the post-Roman period.