EDO5502 - Sherrings Green Close, Puddletown; evaluation (Phase 2) 2001

Terrain Archaeology carried out a second archaeological evaluation in order to investigate features in the southern end of the site, provisionally identified as prehistoric. Their presence was discovered during the original evaluation Phase 1. The site is located on the west side of the village of Puddletown and lies between 60 and 61m above Ordnance Datum, on an area of Upper Chalk geology. Six trenches were excavated on the site, across various features. All were machine excavated by a JCB with a toothless grading bucket down to the top of in situ archaeological deposits, or the natural subsoil. All deposits and features were cleaned by hand, planned and recorded, while the excavation of features was carried out in order to resolve their date, nature, extent and condition in order to make sure the natural had been reached after hand excavation of features, the trenches were machine excavated further. All six trenches were back-filled using excavated material and compacted by the JCB. The second phase of evaluation recovered a comparatively large number of prehistoric finds dating from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, mostly Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age. The site came up with a total 211 pieces of worked flint, 10 sherds of prehistoric pottery, two sherds of Late Iron Age pottery and 58 sherds of medieval pottery. Several prehistoric linear features were discovered, though their identification is difficult due to the condition of the site, however it is postulated that it was a possible henge monument.