Monument record MDO6691 - Prehistoric burial, Weymouth

In 1979 human bones were observed by workmen during the stripping of topsoil during the enlargement of a reservoir. The workmen collected the bones and parts of two beakers, noted the area where they came from, and alerted the Dorset County Museum. Peter Woodward of the Dorset County Museum cleaned about 5 square metres of fissured limestone surface in the disturbed area, revealing a shallow rectangular pit with the remains of a burial. He recorded parts of an inhumation, the larger parts of two Early Bronze Age beakers and a small bronze awl. This burial is likely to have been associated with a round barrow, though no trace of the barrow was seen.

The arrangement of the in situ bones and the ancient fractures on the surviving portions of the two beakers, showed that the burial site had previously been severely eroded by ploughing. There was at most only 20 cm of topsoil covering the burial. Examinations of all recovered bones showed that only one individual was present. This suggests that the burial was originally flexed with the head to the west. Two beakers and the awl were considered to be in their original positions. There was no sign of a perimeter ditch around this burial pit. It is however possible that it was originally protected by a burial mound. This could therefore be the site of an unrecorded bowl barrow ploughed out in antiquity.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1982, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1980, 98-100 (Serial). SDO80.

Record last edited

Oct 4 2021 3:45PM