| Summary : Inhumations, pottery and other material found in a natural fissure "in one of the Government quarries on the Verne at Portland" circa 1891. The human remains comprised parts of a man, a woman and two "young people". Animal remains included the tusk of a wild boar, dog or fox and vole bones. Some potsherds were also found, and have been identified as Peterborough Ware, suggesting a possible Neolithic date for the deposit as a whole. Some chert flakes may also have been present. It has been suggested that the interments were originally near the surface over an incipient fissure, and subsequently fell in. However, prehistoric burial in a natural feature such as a fissure or crevice is hardly unknown. |
More information : (MARGINAL) An interment was found in a natural
fissure "in one of the Government quarries on the VERNE at
PORTLAND". It appears to have been some distance beneath the
surface, at the junction of Whit-bed and Roach stratas. The
human remains consisted of the portions of a man, a woman, and
two young people, and animal remains, the tusk of a wild boar,
parts of a dog or fox, and field-vole. Above the remains was a
layer of stalagmite 1 1/2 inches thick. Some fragments of
pottery were also found; 2 fragments of a coarse badly fired
vessel, and some of another of finer texture.
It seems likely that the interment was orginally near the
surface over an incipient fissure, and that the material slipped
down the fissure, removing the stalagmite from a position on
the walls of the cleft during the filling-up process. (1)
The site may have been inside the VERNE (centred at SY
66207365) or in the quarry (centred at SY 69797304) as judged
by the date of quarrying. (2)
No further information was obtained upon this site. The first
of the two sites mentioned in T2 is covered by H M Prison and
the other site is quarried out. There was no trace of antiquity
or surface finds. (3)
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