Monument record MDO714 - Settlement on Black Hill, Cerne Abbas

A settlement including a roughly square enclosure formed by a bank around 6 metres wide with an outer ditch visible in places. At least two round houses have been identified in the interior of the enclosure, and it is surrounded by an extensive field system. Limited excavation in 1981-2 and field walking in 1983 indicate activity from the Neolithic to the Roman periods.

Site 'A' (see plan): A possible settlement now under the plough (a) on its side. It could be the remains of an enclosure or the side bank of a fieldway. (b) A triangular enclosure, situated at ST 67410041, the bank averaging 8.0m wide and 0.4m high with an outer ditch 3.0m wide and 0.3m deep. The entrance is on the SE. © A poorly defined depression, possibly a hut site, situated at ST 67410045. About 8.0m in diameter and 0.2m deep, it has unsurveyable traces of an outer bank to the north. No pottery was found in this depression and it may be unrelated to the site. There is no visible evidence of a settlement at site 'A' and it may simply represent outwork enclosures of the settlement at Site 'B'. Site 'B'. A settlement site under rough pasture. (a) A squarish enclosure in good condition with an internal diameter of 20.0m with an entrance on the south side opening on to a bivallate trackway. The bank is 4.0m to 6.0m in width and 0.3m to 1.2m in height. The east bank has an outer ditch visible but there are only faint traces of an outer ditch on the north and west sides. (b-c represents a section surveyed in the field). (d) A hut-circle, situated at ST 66820054, with a diameter of 10.0m and a depression 0.3m deep on the east side and level on the west side. The outer bank is 4.0m wide and 0.5m high with the entrance on the SE. A poorly defined scarp to the south suggests an extension. € An unbanked depression 10.0m in diameter and 0.3m deep situated at ST 66780058. Possibly a hut-circle in poor condition. The bivallate trackway has banks which average 0.3m high and 2.5m wide. The north bank is surveyable for 30.0m to the east of the enclosure and the south bank for 15.0m after which it becomes less well defined. About both sites, 'A' and 'B' is an extensive and pronounced Iron Age/Romano British field system clearly visible on air photographs. <3> Site 'A'. Apart from the three-sided enclosure, this site and the surrounding field system have been reduced by the plough as to be barely traceable. The enclosure has an internal diameter of 20.0m NW-SE by 12.0m transversely, and the bank is now from 7.0m to 12.0m in width and up to 3.0m in height. There are no traces of the outer ditch. Site 'B'. No change. 1:2500 AM survey and PFD revised. <5> Excavation during 1981/1982 and fieldwalking during 1983 revealed Late Neolithic flint extraction, preceding settlement on the hill top which dated from the early Bronze Age until the Romano-British period. Full excavation and field-walking reports, and analysis of the settlement and field systems. <6-11>

Record last edited

Nov 23 2022 2:58PM