SDO21698 - Land at Broadmayne, Dorset. Archaeological Strip, Map and Sample Excavation

‘In April 2025, Cotswold Archaeology carried out an archaeological Strip, Map and Sample (SMS) excavation on land at Broadmayne, Dorset. Two SMS areas were opened, with a combined area of approx. 1,700m². These areas were targeted on prehistoric archaeological features recorded by a previous trial trench evaluation. The SMS excavations recorded evidence for activity in the Neolithic, Bronze Age, later prehistoric, Roman and post-medieval periods. A small amount of residual Neolithic worked flint/chert was recovered. No clearly Neolithic features were present. Two pits contained small amounts of pottery dating to the Beaker period. One ditch contained a sherd of Early/Middle Bronze Age pottery. A ditch terminus and a pit were radiocarbon dated to the Middle Iron Age. The ditch terminus contained a small number of residual Pottery sherds dating to the Beaker period. These features also contained exceptionally rich charred plant assemblages consisting almost entirely of cereal grains; these assemblages were representative of dumped material. One pit and one ditch contained small amounts of late prehistoric pottery. A Roman ditch and a parallel undated ditch may represent part of a Roman field system. The recovered box flue tile fragment suggests the presence of a heated Roman structure in the vicinity of the site. Two probable post-medieval chalk extraction pits were present, as well as a series of undated pits/postholes.’