Monument record MDO18288 - Middle Farm; Middle Bronze Age round house

A Middle Bronze Age round house constructed from a ring of postholes and a central posthole, with an external wall line forming a building about seven metres in diameter was found during the excavations at Middle Farm undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in advance of the Dorchester By-pass construction. This round house lay within the interior of a Middle Bronze Age ditched enclosure.

A post-built round house was discovered within the interior of a Middle Bronze Age ditched enclosure during the 1987 excavations at Middle Farm undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in advance of the construction of the Dorchester By-pass(1) (2) (3). The numbers in square brackets below are context and feature numbers used in the report and archive (1) (3).

This structure [03252] comprised a five metre diameter ring of ten postholes, eight of which were regularly spaced at two metre intervals and the other two were adjacent to two postholes in the northwestern part of the ring. A single posthole was found in the centre of the structure. A shallow curving intermittent gully was found external to the post-ring on the east side, probably the remains of the wall foundations, giving a diameter of seven metres for the building, with the roof supported on an internal post ring. No floor or occupation deposits survived within this structure. Two postholes were found external to this structure in the south and may be part of an adjacent fence line.

A radiocarbon date of 3780-3380 cal. BC was obtained from charcoal recovered from three of the postholes in the post ring. This date may have been contaminated by earlier Neolithic charcoal present in the soil at the time of construction of the house (1). This house is more likely to have been constructed in the mid 2nd millennium cal. BC. A single sherd of grog-tempered Bronze Age pottery was recovered form one of the postholes of the possible fence line.

National Monuments Record, NMR Monument Record, SY 68 NE 196 (Index). SDO9937.

<1> Smith, R J C et al, 1997, Excavations along the Route of the Dorchester By-pass, Dorset, 1986-8, 73-75 (Monograph). SDO9379.

<2> 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.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 1987, Dorchester By-pass (Excavation archive). SDO9385.

Record last edited

Mar 20 2012 12:28PM