Monument record MDO18022 - Maiden Castle Farm ring-ditch 52045

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

Ring-ditch 52045 had an external diameter of about 13m and an internal diameter of about 10m. It was defined by a ditch with steep sides and flat bottom up to 1.3m wide and 0.45m 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, together with three sherds of possibly later prehistoric pottery. 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 ( 52034, 02027, 52032) suggests that it was the remains of a round barrow, forming part of a possible linear barrow cemetery.

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.

Record last edited

Mar 20 2024 4:59PM