SDO11628 - The Former Allotments, Church Knapp, Wyke Regis, Weymouth Archaeological Excavation Archive Report.

Between 17th August 1998 and 8th January 1999 archaeological investigations were undertaken by AOC Archaeology Group on behalf of Trencherwood Homes Limited prior to the proposed development of the former allotments at Church Knapp, Wyke Regis, Weymouth. This development involved the proposed construction of 39 domestic dwellings with an associated access road. An initial evaluation, involving the excavation of 11, 2m wide trenches totalling 265 linear metres, revealed a focus of activity confined to the central and south-western part of the investigation area. This activity took the form of six features, clearly predating allotment usage, the most extensive of which was a layer of stone, packed into a wide slot cut into the natural clay. This was bounded by a kerb on two sides and had an apparent length of 16m. The subsequent excavation phase of these investigations concentrated on the southern half of the north-south arm of the development area, the area directly affected by the proposed housing development. This revealed a sequence of activity spanning many centuries. The majority of this activity occurred between the 8th century BC (Early Iron Age) and the 3rd century AD (Romano-British), although there was residual lithic evidence of this site being used during the Neolithic period. Although the archaeological features were divided into four geographically discrete areas, it was possible to assign these areas to two distinct phases of activity. Whilst the purpose and date of a number of features, especially those around the periphery of the excavation area, remain subject to speculation, the function, date and overall significance of the site and its environment have been clearly demonstrated. Aside from the residual Neolithic flints, the earliest activity recorded took the form of a terrace, cut into the south-facing slope of the hill known as Church Knapp. In the flat base of this terrace were features attributed to the eighth century BC that appear to have been in use when the terrace was consolidated. This consolidation involved laying a packed surface of small stones into the base of the terrace and revetting the terrace cut itself with a low wall of 'beach-boulders'. These are most likely to have been carried up from the beaches along the West Fleet or the rocky outcrops of Western Ledges around what is now Sandsfoot Castle. It is likely that this consolidation took place around the first century BC. Unfortunately this phase had been heavily truncated, and in part completely cut away by activity associated with the second phase of occupation. The second phase was similar to the first in that the major structural element consisted of a relatively shallow cut in the natural ground that had been consolidated and accentuated by the use of small-stone metalling and beach-boulder retaining walls. This phase was constructed on a much grander scale taking the form of a trackway, most likely used as a processional avenue leading to just below the crest of Church Knapp. The layer of stone recorded in Evaluation Trench 2 proved to be part of this trackway. The consolidation and quite possibly the construction of this linear feature appear to have taken place during the first century AD with evidence for continued use through to the third century. This possible processional avenue was thought to be directly associated with a group of burials, pits and postholdes which were excavated in the eastern part of the site. Burial at the site began in the Iron Age and continued into the Roman period with no apparent change in ritual. A total of five inhumations were identified, four were identified as female whilst the disarticulated assemblage also contained the remains of juvenile and neonatal/foetal skeletons. The absence of male interments may be a function of their burial elsewhere, possibly in a higher status area nearer the summit of the hill. To the south of these graves was a group of postholes showing little evidence of structural regularity which clearly relate to activity immediately beyond the eastern limit of excavation in this area. Although these postholes remain undated it is possible that they represent some ceremonial shrine or elaborate grave marker, most likely from the second phase of archaeological activity. A heavily truncated but nonetheless major boundary ditch that ran east-west across the southern part of the site was thought to have enclosed the ceremonial area during the second phase of occupation and acted to delimit the proximity of domestic activity to the monument. This theory is borne out by the presence of boundary ditches and domestic structural elements immediately to the south of the burial ground boundary. The easternmost end of this latter feature showed signs of an entrance into the burial ground from the southeast and this part of the site produced evidence for continued maintenance of the boundary line. Around the third century AD, the burials were capped by a protective layer of packed stone. This stone capping is likely to have been robbed from one or more of the other stone structures on site and was thought to denote the cessation of use or importance of both the structure from which it was robbed and the burial ground itself. In summary, it would appear that this area, the crest and southern side of Church Knapp, was utilised as a burial ground or sacred area for around 1100 years between the Early Iron Age and the third century AD. The information recovered during these works show a consolidated Iron Age platform below the brow of the hill succeeded by a processional avenue leading to a hilltop burial-ground during the first half of the Roman occupation of Britain. During this time, occupation of the hillside immediately outside the cemetery became established. The abandonment of this ritual site was a deliberate action in which graves and other funerary features were protected from desecration before the site was abandoned. Quite possibly, the use of the hilltop promontory, along with the neighbouring hilltop, as elements of a ritually important landscape extends a good deal further back in time than the Early Iron Age. Given that the eastern site boundary is shared with an overflow cemetery for a neighbouring church it seems likely that this hilltop promontory continued as a ritual site onward from the third century to the present day.