| Summary : A pit circle comprising a sub-circular arrangement of 12 pits was excavated in the early 1980s in advance of work on the Dorchester by-pass. The site lay within the Dorchester Cursus (SU 59 NE 5), circa 400 metres northwest of its southeastern terminal. The long axis of the pit circle was the same as that of the cursus. Each of the pits had held a timber upright, and some if not all had been burnt in situ. An air photograph of the site had suggested the presence of a central pit but this feature proved to be a natural pocket of sand. Six deposits of cremated bone came from various post pipes. Other finds included a handful of potsherds, one possibly of Early Bronze Age date, some animal bone fragments, and a few flints. Radiocarbon dates from cremated bone and charcoal centred on the mid 3rd millennium BC, with one slightly later. |
More information : Excavation in advance of the Dorchester bypass examined this monument, which consisted of pits that each contained a wooden post burned in situ. (1)
Cropmark remains of a Neolithic timber circle defined by pits with a diameter of 25m seen at SU 5775 9513. Within the circle is a single a central pit. The site lies inside the south-eastern end of the Dorchester cursus.
The site was mapped at 1;10,000 scale as part of the RCHME: Thames Valley NMP (Morph No. TG371.21.1). (2)
A pit circle comprising a sub-circular arrangement of 12 pits was completely excavated in 1981 in advance of work on the Dorchester by-pass. The site lay within the Dorchester Cursus (SU 59 NE 5), circa 400 metres northwest of its southeastern end. The long axis of the pit circle was the same as that of the cursus. Each of the pits had held a timber upright, and some if not all had been burnt in situ. An air photograph of the site had suggested the presence of a central pit but this feature proved to be a natural pocket of sand. Six deposits of cremated bone came from various post pipes. Other finds included a handful of potsherds, one possibly of Early Bronze Age date, some animal bone fragments, and a few flints. Radiocarbon dates from charcoal, presumably derived from the original timber posts, concentrate on the first half of the 3rd millennium BC. Charcoals from the post-pipe fills, in two cases associated with cremated bone, were also dated. Two of the samples are indistinguishable from the dates associated with the timber circle, while the third is considerably later, belonging to the late 3rd/early 2nd millennium BC. (3-4) |