Monument record MDO5544 - Iron Age settlement, Gussage All Saints

An Iron Age settlement and associated field system are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs. The features were digitally plotted by the Dorset Stour NMP project. Iron Age settlement and enclosure, listed by RCHME as Gussage All Saints 20, and initially identified by air photography. The site was totally excavated in 1972, partly due to the erosion being caused by ploughing but primarily to review the evidence for Iron Age settlement provided by Bersu's 1938-9 excavation of Little Woodbury. The site was occupied throughout the second half of the 1st millennium BC and into the early decades of the Roman period. The enclosure ditch, irregular and asymmetrical, measured 120 metres north-south and 100 metres east-west internally. There appears to have been an external bank. The main entrance was to the east, and featured timber structures and was approached by "antennae" ditches which presented a funnel-like approach to the enclosure. Three main phases of occupation were identified. During the third phase, the ditch seems not to have been maintained as a physical barrier. Occupation in the first phase was represented largely by pits, post holes and some four-post structures. No round houses were identified. In the second phase, the pits and postholes were accompanied by one definite and one possible round house. The third phase saw the construction of several smaller enclosed areas, some of which may have contained timber buildings, though no clear patterning was visible among postholes and other features. The site produced a considerable assemblage of pottery from all 3 phases. Bronze and iron working occurred in all phases. An iron furnace belonging to the early Roman period was found. The most notable metalwork deposit however was from a single pit close to the site's main entrance, and dating to the 1st century BC. It comprised a large assemblage of mould and metalworking debris arising from the production of harness and chariot fittings. Remains of over 50 individuals were found, mostly from the last phase. An inhumation in a wooden coffin found just outside the main entrance was dated by pottery to the 3rd century AD.

An Iron Age settlement and associated field system to the southwest of Gussage All Saints are visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs (7-9). The cropmarks suggest a series of irregular enclosures and ditched and banked rectilinear and curvilinear field boundaries and/or trackways, potentially indicating a small contemporary field system. Some longer ditched linear features may represent contemporary or later trackways. There is one particularly sizeable curvilinear enclosure withan entrance on its southeast side. The enclosure measures around 114m by 121m. An additional sub-circular enclosure approximately 35m in diameter is located within the larger enclosure adjacent to its northeast side. There are numerous pits also visible within the large enclosure. Double ditched features extend in a loose funnel shape away from the possible entrance, possibly indicating a form of Iron Age banjo enclosure. The features were digitally plotted from aerial photographs by the Dorset Stour NMP project (7-9).

Record last edited

Apr 30 2024 3:52PM