Monument record MDO4036 - Mesolithic occupation site, Iwerne Courtney or Shroton

An extensive scatter of mesolithic flint including a large number of microliths, axes and other tools. The record for this monument has been enhanced with support from Wessex Water.

The site has been ploughed and many flint tools have been recovered from the surface including cores, tranchet picks, flake axes and microliths. P G Summers carried out trial excavations in search of hut floors without success some of the scrapers were of early Bronze Age date and other finds included broken pieces of polished axes and a barbed and tanged arrowhead. Many of the finds are now in the Dorset County Museum, Dorchester. <1> <3> <4>

The area has recently been ploughed and several microliths, 2 cores and an axe were found on the surface. <2>

A Mesolithic occupation site, covering 2 acres, centred at ST 890132. <4>

The area remains under plough, and the ploughsoil contains many flints, though no worked pieces were found. <6>

ST 891128. Mesolithic settlement at Iwerne Minster discovered by Summers (Authy.2). Finds listed by Wymer <5> are in British Museum and Dorset County Museum, Dorchester. Green <7> also refers to several polished axe fragments, one barbed and tanged arrowhead and three petit tranchet derivative arrowheads from this site.

<1> Kieller, A Piggott, S and Wallis, F S, 1941, First report of the Sub-Committee of the South-Western group of museums and art galleries on the petrological identification of stone axes; Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (Article in serial). SDO10289.

<2> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 01-MAR-56 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<3> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1962, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1961, 92-4 (Serial). SDO61.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume III (Central) Part 1, 131 (Monograph). SDO146.

'(20) OCCUPATION SITE (890132), of Mesolithic date, lies at 500 ft. above O.D. on the summit of the Chalk escarpment, which is here capped with Clay-with-flints. The site is in the extreme E. of the parish and is generally known by the name of the adjacent parish, Iwerne Minster. The site, covering some two acres, has been ploughed and has yielded a considerable number of surface finds of flint tools, including cores, tranchet picks, flake axes and microliths (P.P.S., VII (1941), 145-6; Dorset Procs., LXXXIII (1961), 92-4, 97).'

<5> Wymer, J J, and Bonsall, C, 1977, Gazetteer of Mesolithic sites in England and Wales, with a gazetteer of Upper Palaeolithic sites in England and Wales, 71 (Monograph). SWX2026.

<6> Chaplin, C P, Various, Field Investigators Comments CC, F2 CC 11-JAN-78 (Unpublished document). SWX3450.

<7> Green, H Stephen, 1980, The Flint Arrowheads of the British Isles: a detailed study of material from England and Wales with comparanda from Scotland and Ireland, 444 (Monograph). SDO18369.

<8> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1988, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1987, 94 (Serial). SDO87.

‘3. Iwerne Minster (Summers, 1941, 145-6)
Fieldwalking was also responsible for the discovery of this large, important Later Mesolithic site. The surface geology is Clay-with-Flints but there is a discrepancy with the Geological Survey map showing Chalk (Sheet 313, 1:50,000) (Paul Ensom, personal communication).
The assemblage included 156 microliths, 60 per cent of which were obliquely blunted points, scalene triangles and a Horsham Point, with axes, picks, numerous scrapers, cores and microcores, typologically extending through the Neolithic into the Bronze Age. There was one core and several flakes of Portland chert. Patination was varied, mostly blue/white, with plough damage and iron-staining. Many flakes showed two periods of working and some had patches of extreme gloss. However, recent work by John Arnold has doubled the number of microliths, including one of Portland chert (Martin Green, personal communication).’

<9> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1989, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1988, 117-125 (Serial). SDO88.

<10> Arnold, J, Green, M, Lewis, B and Bradley, R, 1989, The Mesolithic of Cranborne Chase, 117-125 (Article in serial). SDO12557.

<11> National Record of the Historic Environment, 206102 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Aug 24 2022 4:10PM