Monument record MDO2928 - Bronze Age field boundaries near Bunker's Hill Plantation, West Stafford

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1994, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1993, 150 (Serial). SDO93.

‘WEST STAFFORD BOREHOLE
A two-stage field evaluation was carried out at the site of a proposed borehole close to the River Frome at West Stafford (SY 719891). Six trenches were excavated in total, of which five were aligned in order to sample the gently-sloping topography of the river valley side. The initial evaluation (two trenches) revealed isolated Bronze Age linear features, interpreted as field boundaries. The second stage of evaluation provided evidence of an area of Neolithic activity. A number of shallow pits were located which, on the basis of the range of essentially domestic artefacts recovered from the limited excavation of features, can be taken to represent settlement.
Artefacts recovered included pottery, quern fragments and worked stone, both flint and chert and including a number of well made scrapers. It can be suggested, on the basis of the location of the features and of observed changes in localised topography and soils, that the area of settlement was deliberately located on the margin of the river flood plain.’

Record last edited

Apr 8 2013 2:12PM