SDO15970 - Report on Archaeological Investigations at Longham Lakes 2002-2003

A watching brief was carried out on soil stripping in the southern part of the site between September 2002 and March 2003. For one of the areas investigated designated SAS 272, only one undated possible hearth and a Modern horse burial were recorded. In another area, designated SAS 293, a small urnfield cemetery associated with two ring ditches was excavated in 2003. It lay approximately 450m ENE of the urnfield discovered in 2002 (SAS 263), c450m SE of three ring ditches excavated in 1998 (SAS 121), and contained 16 whole or fragmentary urns and several pits containing charcoal and burnt material. As with SAS 263, all the urns were of the Deverel‐Rimbury type, and had been truncated by ploughing. There was no direct evidence of funeral pyres or mortuary structures at either of the cemeteries, although a patch of charcoal was identified within one of the ring ditches, and a few small features of uncertain function were also found. A single urn of later (Late Bronze Age/Iron Age) date, was located some 60m to the south of the ring ditches, associated with two small pits. Reports on both the urns and the cremated bone are included in this report. The urns from both sites were deposited at Dorchester Museum on 16 December 2005.