Monument record MDO26284 - Three cist burials found in a landslip on the downs near Portesham

Three cist burials extended with their heads facing west were found in a landslip on the downs near Portesham. Another one, thought to be Saxon, was discovered on an adjacent hill.

Three cist burials extended with heads west, found in a landslip on the downs near Portesham, were described in Dorset Procs. XXIV (1903), XLIV-V ; another on an adjacent hill was thought Saxon. No grid reference given.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1904, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club for 1903, xliv-v (Serial). SDO16.

'With respect to archaeology in general, leaving to Mr. Barnes the subject of Church Bells, three hill-graves on the downs near Portesham have been examined. There was no outward sign of their presence, which was revealed only by a slipping away of the hillside near its summit. The skeletons fully extended in the supine posture, their heads lying westwards, were enclosed, as usual, by thin slabs of undressed stone arranged coffin-wise, after the bodies had been placed in position, so that their contour was closely followed. Two of the skeletons were those of a women, and with one of them were the bones of a child in its first dentition, whose skull had been thinned out by hydrocephalus, or "water on the brain." No ornament, or weapon, or pottery was found in the graves, but from a similar interment on an adjacent hill I obtained from a man who discovered them portions of a wheel-made vase. This vessel indicates the Saxon period.'

Record last edited

Jun 27 2024 11:30AM