EDO3995 - Land South-west of Poundbury Farm, Dorchester; evaluation (Trench 48)

Wessex Archaeology undertook an archaeological trial trench evaluation on an area of land to the southwest of Poundbury Farm, Dorchester, Dorset, which formed part of the proposed Phase II Poundbury development. The archaeological evaluation, consisting of 65 machine-excavated trial trenches (1.76% of the site), was undertaken during two periods in February and April 2001. The trenches were located in order to investigate cropmarks, as well as providing a good general coverage of the evaluation area. A few later trenches were positioned to investigate further salient archaeological features. All trenches were excavated by machine to the top of the archaeology or natural deposits and measured approximately 30m x 1.8m. Trench 48 was aligned NW-SE, W of Poundbury Farm and excavated to a depth of 1.1m on to natural clay-with-flints. A single curving linear ditch cut the natural at the NW end of the trench, which was extended slightly to reveal more of it. The fills of the ditch contained numerous sherds of Middle-Late Bronze Age pottery, and one small part of the fill contained 188 pieces of worked flint (possibly representing a single dump of material). The ditch was 2.15m wide and 1.02m deep. Additional trenches, 63, 64 & 65 were excavated to investigate this ditch further. It is possible that the ditches found in these trenches, together with this one, form part of an irregular enclosure measuring 28m x 18m, thinning towards the west. It is conceivable that this represents a Middle-Late Bronze Age dispersed settlement associated with the field system identified further south.