This book presents the detailed results of excavations at a small multi-period site in south-east Dorset. The site provided evidence for an Early Neolithic enclosure, a timber-framed, Late Bronze Age roundhouse, Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age middening activities, Iron Age and Roman settlement and a post-Roman inhumation cemetery. The midden and its associated features and finds are of particular significance, with evidence for deposition and accumulation over several centuries. Other important features include: a Late Iron Age stone-lined pit containing over 100 near-complete pots and a substantial quantity of animal bone, suggesting a large-scale communal gathering and feasting activity; a Roman barn, used as a shale workshop and as a burial place for infants; a 6th- to 8th-century AD cemetery of single, double and triple graves, illuminating the nature of change in burial practices in Dorset at this time; and significant pottery and animal bone assemblages, particularly from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age and Late Iron Age.

AUTHOR
Lilian Ladle is an independent field archaeologist and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Archaeology and Anthropology, Bournemouth University. She directed a 13-year project on the multi-period site at Bestwall Quarry, Wareham and is currently directing the Druce Farm Roman Villa excavations near Dorchester. She was awarded the MBE in 2008 for services to archaeology.

With contributions by M. Allen, P.S. Bellamy, D. Challinor, M. Corney, T. Cowie, S. Cullinane, L. Evans, E. Firth, J. Henderson, D.A. Hinton, R. Kenyon, A. Krus, R. Lancaster, M. Ladle, M. Lyne, A. Morgan, B. O’Connor, C. Randall, J. Randall†, R.M.A. Trevarthen, P. Walton Rogers. Illustrations by J. Bartlet, M. Corney, G. Naylor

REVIEWS
‘This is a very significant contribution to our understanding of an important site. … The LBE/EIA pottery assemblage and the LIA pottery assemblage are major groups which provide well dated and detailed information which is of considerable significance to British and European scholars.’ Professor Niall Sharples, Cardiff University

‘The presentation of the results of this excavation adds greatly to understanding of the archaeology of the site itself and of a wider area. … Elements of the report will be of value to specialists investigating more national or even international topics.’ Steve Wallis, Senior Archaeologist, Dorset County Council