Monument record MDO6647 - Urnfield, Rimbury, Weymouth

Bronze Age cremation cemetery found during clearance for arable and subsequently parly excavated. Further excavations took place for construction of a reservoir.

About a quarter of a mile south of Chalbury and at a lower level but still on high ground lies the cemetery discovered by workmen who were removing large stones for cultivation purposes. The ground is uneven and a wall runs longitudinally over the ridge. Forty urns - of which 38 were destroyed - were found before the site was excavated by Mr Warne, Mr C. Hall and Mr Medhurst. In all some 100 urns were unearthed only a few of which survived. They all contained ashes and calcined bones and the majority were mouth upwards and covered with thin flat stone. Two identical urns were found side by side and covered by a common stone. "Cists and Kistvaens" were interspersed amidst the urns and the depths of deposits varied between 18 in. and 2ft. No metal was found. On kistvaen contained part of a skeleton anda small urn with ashes but in many cases unburnt skeletons were found lying beneath urns. Several of the cists were without urns but contained mortuary contents. "Cartloads of human bones had previously been removed from the contiguous chalk pit." <1>

SY 68938339. This site was located from the topographical description contained in Auth 1. It is a prominent knoll, on a ridge, and is crossed by an East - West wall. The ground is uneven and grass covered. A disused chalk pit is situated to the immediate east and is centred at SY 69878338. There were no surface finds. <2>

Typical urns from the Rimbury Urnfield. Scale approx. 1/6. From authority 1. AO/55/57/5,6 and 7. <3>

Work to an extension to the reservoir in 1979 revealed a quantity of human bone and fragments of Beaker pottery. Excavation of the remains (sited to SY69693346) from Woodwrd's plan) showed that the burial laid within a shallow subrectangular pit with remains of two beakers and a small bronze awl. The site had been badly eroded by ploughing, but it was shown that only one individual was present, probably male, and originally flexed with the head to the west. There was no sign of a perimeter ditch around the burial pit, but it is possible that it was originally protected by a burial mound and may therefore be the site of a ploughed out barrow. The Rimbury urnfield was also probably located within a barrow cemetery. The oss of barrows on this ridge outside the hillfort may be explained by its location within the Mediaeval open fields of Bincombe and Sutton Poyntz. These burial sites, together with the tumuli at Chalbury hillfort, (SY68SE33) can be considered to be southern outliers to the extended cemetery of the South Dorset Ridgeway. <4-5>

<1> Warne, C, 1866, The Celtic Tumuli of Dorset (1866), 58-63 (Monograph). SWX8166.

<2> Swatridge, G C, Various, Field Investigators Comments GCS, F1 GCS 21-DEC-54 (Unpublished document). SWX1169.

<3> Tilley, H A, Field Investigator's comments HAT, 15-APR-55 (Unpublished document). SDO20303.

<4> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 4574 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(435) Rimbury Urnfield (SY 68 SE; 69958336; Fig. p. 24), possibly including barrow(s), on limestone spur S.E. of Chalbury hill-fort (Bincombe (76)). Reservoir now on site. Nearly 100 cremations in mostly upright urns, covered with flat stones, and several probably extended inhumations, some in stone-lined graves, some beneath urns, and at least one in a cist with an inurned cremation, were found during clearance for arable and subsequent excavation. Some urns in D.C.M. and one in Cambridge Univ. Mus. of Arch. and Eth. (Ant. J. XIII (1933), 446–7; P.P.S. XXVIII (1962), 319–20.)’

<5> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1982, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1980, 98-100 (Serial). SDO80.

<6> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<7> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AO55/F57/5 (Index). SDO14738.

URN.DRAWING FROM 'CELTIC TUMULI OF DORSET'(1866) BY C.WARNE

<8> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AO55/F57/6 (Index). SDO14738.

POT

<9> Historic England, Historic England Archive, AO55/F57/7 (Index). SDO14738.

URN

<10> National Record of the Historic Environment, 452700 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Nov 16 2023 4:27PM