Monument record MDO18017 - Late Iron Age cemetery at Flagstones, Dorchester

A scattered group of five graves with flexed, crouched or contracted inhumations and three pits also containing flexed or contracted inhumations found in the southern half of the Flagstones excavations. No grave goods.

Found during excavation at Flagstones by Wessex Archaeology in 1987-1988 in advance of the construction of the Dorchester By-pass. 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.

Four shallow graves containing unaccompanied inhumation burials were found scattered across the southern half of the excavated area. In addition three pits in this same area contained inhumation burials.

Grave [00015] was a sub-rectangular steep-sided flat-based grave 0.45m deep in the southern end of the site. It contained the supine skeleton of an adult female with the knees drawn up to the chest and with the left arm more tightly flexed than the right. The grave was filled with chalk rubble. No grave goods were present. This grave was cut by Late Iron Age ditch [00011].

Grave [00041] was a shallow grave containing the inhumation of a 16-17 year old lying on their right side with the legs drawn up to the chest. This grave cut the Late Iron Age storage pit [00019]. No grave goods were found.

Grave [00432] was a shallow grave just inside the southwestern part of the central ring-ditch. It contained the skeleton of an unsexed adult supine with the legs flexed. No grave goods were found.

Grave [50264] was a shallow grave containing the skeleton of a mature adult, possibly male, lying on its left side with the legs tightly flexed.

Pit [00019] contained the skeleton of a 3-4 year old child laid supine with the legs flexed in the upper fills. This pit was cut by grave [00041].

Pit [00300] contained the flexed skeleton of an adult male on his right side placed on the base of the pit.

Pit [00302] contained fragments of bone from an infant less than six months old in one of its lower fills and in the upper fills had been placed the body of an adult in a supine position with the legs drawn up to the chest and the left arm more tightly flexed than the right. This burial may have been placed in a deliberately cut grave in the top of this pit.

These burials are contemporary with the Late Iron Age settlement in this area. They occur in storage pits and also cut or are cut by features associated with the Late Iron Age settlement.

This cemetery continued to the east of the Flagstones excavation. A number of Late Iron Age burials were found in the adjacent garden of Max Gate in the late 19th century (2).

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 (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.

<2> Hardy, T, 1890, Some Romano-British relics found at Max Gate, Dorchester'. Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society 11, 78-81 (Article in serial). SDO9383.

<2> Hardy, Thomas, 1966, Some Romano-British relics found at Max Gate, Dorchester, 78-81 (Monograph). SDO20833.

Record last edited

Jan 14 2015 4:15PM