Monument record MDO45857 - Neolithic activity, Gussage St Michael

A scatter of Late Neolithic material overlapping the Dorset Cursus was the focus of surface collection and sample excavation in 1984. The scatter occupies a low spur overlooking the source of the River Allen and is bounded on the west by a Pleistocene river cliff.

A surface scatter of Later Neolithic material which overlaps the Dorset Cursus was the focus of surface collection and sample excavation in 1984 (see Linear 41 for aspects of the excavation relevant to the original construction and use of the cursus itself). The scatter occupies a low spur overlooking the source of the River Allen and is bounded on its western side by a Pleistocene river cliff. The surface scatter included transverse arrowheads, scrapers, polished axe flakes, a plano-convex knife, a macehead and a sherd of Peterborough Ware. The excavated material included surface and ploughsoil finds, as well as material stratified in the upper silts of the cursus ditches. These finds included further sherds of Peterborough Ware, animal bones, two human long bones and further flintwork. The flints included cores, scrapers, a flake from a polished axe, and a barbed and tanged arrowhead. Three pits were encountered during the sample excavation within the Cursus. Their contents showed them to be of later Neolithic date, contemporary with the surface material. In an interim report (Bradley et al 1984), these pits were tentatively suggested to represent a pit circle abutting the southern cursus ditch. This suggestion is absent from the final report (Barrett et al 1991). The nearby broadly contemporaryWyke Down henge (SU 01 NW 113) faces this scatter/activity area. [NB re: location of the site - Barrett et al (1991) do not provide a precise location. Bradley et al (1984) locate the site to SU 00601488. However, this would place the site north of the cursus. SU 00651485 is an estimate based on the published location plans]. <3>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1985, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1984, 128-132 (Serial). SDO84.

<2> Barrett, J, Bradley, R and Green, M, 1991, Landscape, Monuments and Society: the prehistory of Cranborne Chase, 70-75 (Monograph). SDO16633.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 1309744 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Mar 8 2023 1:43PM