SDO13965 - A35 Tolpuddle to Puddletown Bypass DBFO, Dorset, 1996-8. Incorporating excavations at Tolpuddle Ball 1993

This report provides a full description and interpretation of the archaeological mitigation works undertaken in connection with the construction of the A35 Tolpuddle to Puddletown Bypass, Dorset, a ‘Design, Build, Finance and Operate’ project (DBFO). The evaluation phase and some of the mitigation works (the excavation of an Iron Age and Roman site near Tolpuddle Ball) had been undertaken previously by the Archaeological Field Unit of Liverpool University in the period 1990 to 1993. The main phase of advance mitigation works was undertaken by Wessex Archaeology between October 1996 and February 1997. A watching brief was carried out between February 1997 and February 1999. This report incorporates the results from the 1993 excavation at Tolpuddle Ball since responsibility for completing the post-excavation of this site was transferred to Wessex Archaeology as part of the DBFO project. The project has produced an important range of data for an area which has not, until now, yielded many opportunities for archaeological survey and excavation. The route of the bypass provided a 9km east-west transect on the margins of the chalk uplands of Dorset at their interface with the Piddle valley and the Tertiary deposits of the Hampshire Basin. This is an important and interesting zone for regional studies, particularly for the later prethistoric and Roman periods, since it lies within the hinterland of the regional centre of Dorchester (Durnovaria) and the major industrial source area of Purbeck. The latter supplied salt, ceramics, building stone and stone and shale artefacts throughout the later prehistoric and Roman periods. The project included the fortuitous discovery of late glacial and early post-glacial deposits at Burleston Down (c. 12,000-8000 BC) which represents the first such recorded sequence for central southern England. The project has also provided important new data concerning Neolithic and Bronze Age activity including the identification of an Early / Middle Bronze Age settlement enclosure at Tolpuddle Ball, (c. 2400-1100 BC). The Late Bronze Age is represented by remains, usually poorly preserved, from six sites along the route. The main body of data from the project concerns the Middle / Late Iron Age and Romano-British period and is largely confined to the multi-period site near Tolpuddle Ball. The Middle / Late Iron Age settlement was focused on a rectangular enclosure which was established around 300 BC. The settlement included a large number of pits some of which contained ‘special’ deposits including the burial of animal heads and carcases (apparently including skinned dogs), neonatal human remains and other groups of objects. The Roman settlement was located in the same area and Roman stone building and the range of activities recorded on the site includes the preparation of leather from sheepskins. Human burials were associated with both the Iron Age and Roman settlement; 26 individuals were recorded, almost half of the group consisting of the burial of neonates. Overall, the settlement appears representative of a small farming community of relatively prosperous standing, at least during the Roman period. During the late stages of the project (July 1998) a Late Roman and post-Roman inhumation cemetery was discovered during topsoil stripping of an additional construction area. The cemetery lay approximately 100 m west of the Roman settlement at Tolpuddle Ball and was located beside a parish boundary. The excavated area appears to represent the entire cemetery and a total of 50 graves was recorded. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the cemetery continued in use until the late 7th century AD. The cemetery was very compact and orderly and comprised orientated graves in rows aligned north-south. No grave goods were associated with the burials. Coffin nails were also absent although there was probable evidence for the timber coffins in a few cases. The Tolpuddle Ball cemetery is only the second securely-dated post-Roman (British) cemetery so far excavated in Dorset, the other being Ulwell in the Isle of Purbeck. Detailed analysis of the human bone from the cemetery and an extended discussion of the site are included in this report. Medieval and later deposits from the project are limited but include an unusually early 13th-century agricultural enclosure and midden excavated at West Mead near Bere Regis. A post-medieval road-side burial was also discovered, located on a parish boundary at the site of a former crossroads. The burial was that of a woman aged 40 years or older and is most likely to date to the 16th-18th century.