Monument record MDO1905 - Inhumation cemetery, Piddlehinton

An inhumation cemetery discovered during building work in 1961. Most of the burials were removed by mechanical digger, before limited recording and excavation of two burials by archaeologists. The two excavated burials had been disturbed and contained only the lower portions of skeletons. These were extended and lying on their backs with heads to the west. No dating evidence was found, but the burials were thought probably to be of Roman date. The circumstances of the discovery were such that the number of burials and extent of the cemetery was not clear, although traces of at least eleven burials were noted.

SY 72549678. An inhumation cemetery was discovered during building operations in 1961 on the highest part of the army camp southeast of Bourne Grove, Piddlehinton. The site was examined by R. Peers for Dorset County Museum who observed a number of rounded depressions or shallow scoops in the excavation areas; some of these showing human bones, probably all representing graves. Substantial remains of at least two extended inhumations, orientated east-west, were also seen but no pottery or other finds were revealed. Farrar was told by Clifford C Board, of Weymouth, that he saw eight or nine of these burials during excavation, one of them an adult close to a child, and that all were extended on a similar alignment with heads to the west. He believed that a number of others had already been destroyed in laying the concrete base of the installation. There is no direct evidence for the age of the cemetery but it is unlikely that it belongs to the Medieval settlement north west of Muston Farm. Regular cemeteries of extended inhumations with few or no grave-goods seem, however, to be of Roman or perhaps Dark Age', date in the region rather than of Early Iron Age. <1>

Record last edited

Sep 25 2023 5:11PM