Monument record MDO37209 - Cross ridge dyke on Southdown Hill, Weymouth

A large linear earthwork recorded during excavations in 2008-2009 in advance of construction of the Weymouth Relief Road, and interpreted as the ploughed-out remains of a cross-ridge dyke and visible as a slight depression. The dyke ran on a NNE-SSW alignment, and comprised a wide flat-bottomed ditch of varying width with narrow parallel ditches running off either side; these were interpreted as ancillary ditches, possibly hedgerows. The monument was dated to the early Iron Age.

The excavators felt that the dyke conformed most closely to the univallate variety of cross-ridge dyke, but noted a significant difference in that the chief surviving element of the dyke was a wide flat ditch, rather than the more typical V-shaped ditch. Narrow parallel ditches running off either side were interpreted as ancillary ditches or even hedgerows, though their stratigraphic relationship with the main dyke was not clear, having been truncated. The ditch narrowed as it ran northwards, but the northern end of the monument was not excavated, so it was not clear if it was a genuine terminal or merely the extent of survival. The ditch could be seen as a slight depression but there was no above-ground evidence of any associated bank or banks. It was felt that a stony fill in the northern part of the main ditch may represent levelled bank material. The surviving ditch was not particularly regular, varying in width from 12 metres at its widest point to 2 metres towards the northern end. The southern part of the ditch was around 10 metres wide and 0.7m deep, and a section cut through this part of the ditch revealed four distinct fillings. Pottery recovered from these fillings included sherds of early Iron Age pottery but was dominated by late Iron Age sandy wares, with a single piece of early Roman orange ware in an upper filling, along with a few fragments of animal bone. Another section was cut through the northern part of the ditch at a point where it cut an earlier natural hollow filled with occupation debris including many fragments of early Iron Age red-finished pottery. The filling of the ditch in this location was derived in part from this earlier feature, but also included several blocks of limestone which may have come from a bank on the western side of the ditch. A Roman brooch, iron nail and copper alloy brooch pin suggested that the bank may have been at least partly levelled in the early Roman period. Another section at the northern end of the ditch showed it to be around 4 metres wide and 0.25m deep, with a single filling of greyish-brown clayey silt containing limestone slabs and blocks. These stones were concentrated on the eastern side of the ditch but, even so, their distribution suggested to the excavators that there may possibly have been a bank on both sides. The main ditch appeared to have been filled over a long period and would have served as a drain when partly filled, making dating from artefacts difficult. The ditch cut an early Iron Age feature and was itself cut by a post-medieval field drainage ditch. It was still filling during the late Iron Age and early Roman periods. The excavators concluded that the dyke was of early Iron Age date. {1}

Record last edited

Mar 31 2024 8:47PM