Monument record MDO18021 - Maiden Castle Farm ring-ditch 52034

A ring-ditch defined by a single, probably continuous ditch of 16.5m diameter. No internal features. Possibly the remains of a round barrow. Visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs {1}. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

A ring-ditch discovered during topsoil stripping for the Dorchester By-pass construction. It was investigated by Wessex Archaeology in summer 1987. About two-thirds of this ring-ditch was exposed, the northern part was obscured by a temporary haul road. It lay just to the northwest of ring-ditch 02027 and southeast of ring-ditch 52045, which was on the other side of the haul road. The projected circuit of ring-ditches 52034 and 52045 suggestst they were conjoined.

Ring-ditch 52034 had an external diameter of 16.5m and an internal diameter of 13m. It was defined by a ditch with steep sides and flat bottom up to 2.1m wide and 0.6m deep. It was filled with primary chalk rubbles and secondary silts. No suggestion of a mound was evident from the character of the ditch fills. No internal features were found. The finds recovered from the ditch fills consisted of worked flint of Bronze Age character. The land snail evidence suggested the ring-ditch was constructed in a very open and intensively arable landscape.

The size and location of this ring-ditch in association with other ring-ditches ( 52045, 02027, 52032) suggests that it was the remains of a round barrow, forming part of a possible linear barrow cemetery.

Visible as a cropmark on aerial photographs {1}. The site was digitally plotted during the South Dorset Ridgeway Mapping Project.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 983948 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

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

Smith, R J C et al, 1997, Excavations along the Route of the Dorchester By-pass, Dorset, 1986-8, 53-55 (Monograph). SDO9379.

Royal Air Force, 24-JAN-1959, RAF F12/58/267 0058-9 (Aerial Photograph). SDO11800.

Record last edited

Mar 20 2024 4:58PM