Monument record MDO37231 - Iron Age 'Durotrigian' burial (7565) 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 burial of a man in a crouched postion with grave goods in the form of two bowls in Poole Harbour ware and animal bones representing a food offering.

The burial was situated near a boundary fence, in an oval grave cut 1.15m long, 0.80m wide and 0.20m deep, filled with reddish brown redeposited natural soil. It consisted of the almost complete skeleton of an adult male, in a crouched position with head to the south east. Examination of the bones revealed evidence of possible dietary deficiency, a healed hand fracture, and several pathologies including osteoarthritis, degenerative changes in the spine, and tooth plaque.

Grave goods comprised two ‘war cemetery’ style bowls in Poole Harbour ware, one near the head and the other by the knees, and bones of a lamb, likely to represent a food offering characteristic of South Dorset burial rites. {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, 184 (Monograph). SDO14013.

Record last edited

Jun 29 2015 11:10AM