SDO214 - The Excavation of a Crop-mark Ring Ditch at West Stafford, Near Dorchester, Dorset

Excavation of a crop-mark site at West Stafford revealed an incomplete ring ditch, interpreted, despite the absence of burials, as the vestiges of a funerary monument of Neolithic or Bronze Age date. An associated length of ditch, possibly part of a further similar monument, was also investigated. The ring ditch had been considerably truncated by both ancient and more recent ploughing and, in one area, the ditch had been totally removed by an extensive chalk-cut feature, tentatively interpreted as a quarry.