Monument record MDO525 - Crouched burial, The Old Stables, Osmington Drove, Broadmayne

The remains af an articulated female skeleton, buried with an infant, found during building works at the Old Stables was excavated by Wessex Archaeology. The adult skeleton seemed to have been flexed and to have been placed in the bottom of a ditch. No dating evidence was seen, but the nature of the burial suggests that it is likely to be prehistoric.

An articulated adult female and a child skeleton were found during building works at the Old Stables, Osmington Drove, Broadmayne in August 1985.

The adult skeleton had been found during the cutting of a wall-trench 1.5m deep, within the stable-block. The burial appeared to have been laid towards the base of a chalk-cut or steep-sided ditch. This feature was approximately 1m deep, 3m wide at the top and 1.8m wide at the base. Its fill was sealed only by post-medieval earth and floor levels associated with the stable-block. Though badly disturbed by the building works, the skeleton was probably flexed, with head laid to the west, facing approximately south. The perinatal infant skeleton was mostly retrieved from the spoil of the wall-trench, and its original burial location is uncertain, though it is likely that it lay to one side of the adult female.

No gravegoods accompanied the burial, nor were any artefacts found in the fill of the pit or ditch. The dating of the burial, without artefact association and in a location difficult to interpret adequately and only sealed by post-medieval layers, is inevitably problematic. Previously burials of prehistoric date have been found at or near Broadmayne, including a flexed burial from Knighton Lane, and, to the south of the village, two crouched burials associated with beakers. In the absence of any contradictory evidence, it would seem likely that this burial might also belong to the earlier prehistoric period.

The Human Remains by Margaret Cox:

The skeletal remains uncovered represent a mature adult female, aged between 30 and 40 years, and a newly-born infant. The adult, c. 175 cm (5 ft 9 in.) tall, appears to have received an adequate and reasonably healthy diet throughout her life, though some dietary imbalance might be indicated by the loss of the two upper medial incisors before death, as well as an absessed premolar. Osteochondritis dessicans affecting the head of the right mandible, reflects either a hormone imbalance or localised trauma. At an early stage this is unlikely to have produced any physical symptoms and there is no evidence to indicate severe physical trauma. In later years intervertebral osteochondrosis of the lumbar vertebrae would have caused the woman some back pain. The same vertebrae were also affected by slight osteophytosis. The cause of death might relate to the infant, to which a perinatal age of 38 weeks, add or take two weeks, can be assigned. The woman had almost certainly experienced childbirth during her lifetime, and it seems likely that both deaths here may be the result of childbirth. It is possible, though unlikely, that the infant may have belonged to another woman, and was merely placed in this grave out of 'convenience'. (1)

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1986, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1985, 154 (Serial). SDO85.

<2> National Record of the Historic Environment, 868637 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jan 5 2024 4:28PM