Monument record MDO18012 - Early Neolithic pits at Flagstones, Dorchester

Two pits containing settlement debris dating to the mid 4th millenium cal. BC. Evidence for Early Neolithic settlement prior to the construction of the Flagstones enclosure.

Found during the excavations at Flagstones, undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in 1987 in advance of the Dorchester By-pass construction. The following description is abstracted from the final published report on the site (1). The numbers in square brackets refer to context numbers quoted in the report.

Two pits [00221], [00274] were found to contain settlement debris dating to the mid 4th millennium cal BC. Both pits were of regular, near circular, plan with steeply sloping sides and flat bottom.

Pit [00221] lay immediately adjacent to one of the segments of the Neolithic enclosure. It measured 1.85m by 1.95m across and was 0.5m deep. The bottom was stained black but unclear if this was the result of in situ burning or staining from the basal layer of charcoal, ash, burnt chalk and burnt bone. A radio carbon date was obtained from charcoal from this basal fill [00259]. The soil layers above contained smaller quantities of charcoal.

Pit [00274] lay 24m to the northeast and measured 1.05m by 1.1m across and 0.35m deep. The fill was a uniform dark brown silty soil. Pottery from both pits was Neolithic bowl of the southwestern style (28 sherds from [00259] and 224 from[00274]). Other finds included worked flint and a small quantity of cattle bone, and some stone.

Molluscan evidence suggests that the pits were dug in an area of recently cleared secondary woodland. The pits probably represent the remains of settlement of the mid 4th millennium cal BC. A quantity of Early Neolithic pottery was also found residually in a number of other features on the site and probably belong to this settlement.

National Monuments Record, NMR Monument Record, SY 78 NW 67 (Index). SDO9937.

Wessex Archaeology, 1987, Dorchester By-pass (Excavation archive). SDO9385.

Woodward, P J and Smith, R J C, 1987, Survey and excavation along the route of the Southern Dorchester By-pass, 1986-1987 – an interim note, 79-89 (Article in serial). SDO9381.

<1> Smith, R J C et al, 1997, Excavations along the Route of the Dorchester By-pass, Dorset, 1986-8, 27-48 (Monograph). SDO9379.

Record last edited

Jan 14 2015 4:13PM