Monument record MDO5658 - Iron Age features, including a working hollow, Home field, Down Farm, Gussage St Michael

Iron Age features uncovered by excavation at Down Farm in 1986. A roughly oval, slightly depressed soilmark had been noticed during fieldwork. Subsequent excavation revealed a large oval feature circa 10 metres by 7 metres, located just outside the rectilinear enclosure ST 91 SE 215. The oval feature was an irregular hollow up to 0.70 metres deep and contained a number of shallow scoops. Within the fill of the hollow were a few Iron Age potsherds, some animal bone, a bone awl, a few pieces of bronze waste and a quantity of struck flints. Two distinct knapping clusters were found on the floor of the hollow. The flintwork is almost certainly contemporary rather than residual. Several postholes were also found during the excavation in the vicinity of the hollow. Two had been partially destroyed by the original digging of the hollow. The feature is interpreted rather generally as a "working hollow” and compared to similar features commonly found on settlement sites. The excavator suggested that the feature may well relate to a phase of open settlement predating the construction of the adjacent enclosure.

A roughly oval Iron Age 'working hollow' was discovered and excavated at Down Farm, SU 9980 1461. Approximately 10.0m by 7.0m, it cuts some well-defined early Iron Age post-holes which are part of one or two structures. These features lie to the east of a rectilinear enclosure, which may post-date them, discovered on aerial photographs in 1976. A linear feature aligned NE-SW lies to the NW. <1>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1987, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1986, 171-4 (Serial). SDO86.

<2> Barrett, J, Bradley, R and Green, M, 1991, Landscape, Monuments and Society: the prehistory of Cranborne Chase, 233-4 (Monograph). SDO16633.

<3> National Record of the Historic Environment, 912615 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 22 2023 12:32PM