Monument record MDO37224 - Iron Age 'Durotrigian' burial (7109) on Southdown Ridge, Weymouth

An uncoffined inhumation burial recorded during excavations in 2008-2009 in advance of construction of the Weymouth Relief Road, one of nineteen excavated in the area of an Iron Age settlement. The crouched burial of a young woman.

A badly truncated irregular grave cut into the filling of a ditch. The grave cut was 0.92m long, 0.55m wide, 0.10m deep and aligned north-south with the head at the southern end. Three small fragments of early Iron Age pottery were found in the filling of the grave, but were considered to be residual.

The burial was of a female of 18-23 years of age. Examination of the bones revealed evidence of spinal osteoarthritis and spinal disc herniations.

The bones were disarticulated and less than 25% of the skeleton was present. The bones did not show any evidence of excarnation, and the excavators considered that the disarticulation and incompleteness of the skeleton was more likely to be due to disturbance and truncation by later activity. {1}

<1> Brown, L, Hayden, C and Score, D, 2014, 'Down to Weymouth town by Ridgeway'. Prehistoric, Roman and later sites along the Weymouth Relief Road, 190 (Monograph). SDO14013.

Record last edited

Jun 29 2015 11:09AM