Find Spot record MDO6549 - Human remains and artefacts from Bumpers Lane, Easton, Portland

Human remains and artefacts found in a fissure at Bumpers Lane Second Quarry, Portland in 1951. The human bones all belonged to adults, and comprise remains of at least four individuals. Animal bones within the fill of the fissure include sheep, goat, pig, ox and dog bones. Artefacts include some chert flakes and cores, limestone and quartzite pebble hammerstones, and a limestone macehead. The macehead and some of the chert items may be as early as the Mesolithic; the remainder of the artefacts are probably Neolithic or Early Bronze Age.

SY 69737165. In a fissure at Bunipers Lane, Second Quarry, Easton, in the summer of 1951, quarrymen and the author retrieved from the debris of the fissure four human skulls, human and animal bones, a limestone macehead, waste chert flakings and cores and several large smooth pebbles with hammer marks on the ends. It is concluded that the skulls probably date from the early half of the Bronze Age and the artefacts are strongly suggestive of being not later than the Bronze Age. Mr Ledbetter of the Portland Island Museum was present at the excavations. The fissure was destroyed as the quarry was extended. (1) The ground has changed to such an extent that I could only point out the site to the nearest 100 yards. I know nothing about the macehead. Dr Ken Oakley dated the skulls.(a) The site is quarried out. There were no surface finds, or traces, of antiquity. (2) Although the remains have been attributed to the Bronze Age or earlier, the objects are "matched at Iron Age and Roman sites in the Isle of Portland". (3) The skulls appear to be brachymorphic, a form well known from the late Palaeolithic, but not known to have survived into the Neolithic. The artefacts form an assemblage in character with Mesolithic finds from the rest of the island. (4)

Record last edited

Jun 8 2023 3:04PM