Monument record MDO18031 - Maiden Castle Road Pit 02387

A rectangular pit to the north of the ditched trackway, in the area of the inhumation cemetery. It may have been deliberately backfilled when the cemetery was established.

A pit found in the northwest part of the excavations to the north of Maiden Castle Road undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in 1987 in advance of the Dorchester By-pass construction. They may represent the eastward expansion of a settlement area to the west of the site. 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.

Pit [02387] was located to the north of the ditched trackway and cut the edge of quarry [02391]. It was rectangular, 2m by 1.5m. The sides were vertical and it had a flat bottom. The upper part was weathered. It appeared to have been deliberately filled with loamy loose chalk rubble and an ashy layer, then sealed by a layer of clean chalk rubble. Above this were a series of silting and settling layers.

Most of the finds came from the lowest deposits and included pottery of 3rd-4th century AD date, including a complete Black Burnished Ware jar and sherds of New Forest colour coated ware. It also contained a significant amount of animal bone including a large number of neonatal dog bones.

This pit lay within the area of the late Roman cemetery and may have been deliberately backfilled when the area was selected for burial.<1>

SY 676 894 (FCE) A rapid examination of air photography suggests the presence of a number of features, including rectilinear enclosures, linear features and pits, possibly of Prehistoric or Roman date, visible in the process of being excavated to the north of Maiden Castle, c.150m northeast of Bush Road Cottages. <2>

National Record of the Historic Environment, 983909 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

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.

Smith, R J C et al, 1997, Excavations along the Route of the Dorchester By-pass, Dorset, 1986-8, 56-70 (Monograph). SDO9379.

<2> Miller, Andrew, 1993, RCHME: AP Primary Recording Project, 12-FEB-1993 (Unpublished document). SWX1708.

<2.1> Boyden, J R, JRB 3421: 07-8, 10, 16; JRB 3425: 16, 18-30 (Aerial Photograph). SDO20335.

Record last edited

Dec 6 2023 8:30PM