Find Spot record MDO6549 - Human remains and artefacts from Bumpers Lane, Easton, Portland

Human remains and artefacts found in a fissure at Bumpers Lane Second Quarry, Portland in 1951. The human bones all belonged to adults, and comprise remains of at least four individuals. Animal bones within the fill of the fissure include sheep, goat, pig, ox and dog bones. Artefacts include some chert flakes and cores, limestone and quartzite pebble hammerstones, and a limestone macehead. The macehead and some of the chert items may be as early as the Mesolithic; the remainder of the artefacts are probably Neolithic or Early Bronze Age.

SY 69737165. In a fissure at Bunipers Lane, Second Quarry, Easton, in the summer of 1951, quarrymen and the author retrieved from the debris of the fissure four human skulls, human and animal bones, a limestone macehead, waste chert flakings and cores and several large smooth pebbles with hammer marks on the ends. It is concluded that the skulls probably date from the early half of the Bronze Age and the artefacts are strongly suggestive of being not later than the Bronze Age.

Mr Ledbetter of the Portland Island Museum was present at the excavations. The fissure was destroyed as the quarry was extended. (1)

The ground has changed to such an extent that I could only point out the site to the nearest 100 yards. I know nothing about the macehead. Dr Ken Oakley dated the skulls.(a)

The site is quarried out. There were no surface finds, or traces, of antiquity. (2)

Although the remains have been attributed to the Bronze Age or earlier, the objects are "matched at Iron Age and Roman sites in the Isle of Portland". (3)

The skulls appear to be brachymorphic, a form well known from the late Palaeolithic, but not known to have survived into the Neolithic. The artefacts form an assemblage in character with Mesolithic finds from the rest of the island. (4)

<1> Stopes, M C et al, 1953, A Discovery of Human Skulls, with Stone Artefacts and Animal Bones, in a Fissure at Portland., 39-47 (Article in serial). SWX2021.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1953, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1952, 39-47 (Serial). SDO52.

<2> Farrar, R A H, 1952, Archaeological Fieldwork in Dorset in 1951 (Article in serial). SWX2107.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1952, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1951, 93 (Serial). SDO51.

<3> Stopes, M C et al, 1953, A Discovery of Human Skulls, with Stone Artefacts and Animal Bones, in a Fissure at Portland. (Article in serial). SWX2021.

<4> Rigg, J, Field Investigators Comments JR, F1 JR 03-JUN-55 (Unpublished document). SWX1255.

<4.1> Lidbetter, Oral: Mr Lidbetter Caretaker Portland Museum (Verbal communication). SWX8245.

<5> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1968, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1967, 120 (Serial). SDO67.

<6> Palmer, S, 1978, Mesolithic cultures of Britain, 148-9 (Monograph). SWX1704.

<7> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 607 (Monograph). SDO150.

<8> 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, 72 (Monograph). SWX2026.

<9> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 451713 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Jun 8 2023 3:04PM