SDO12286 - An Archaeological Evaluation of a Proposed Housing Development at Front Street, Portesham, Dorset

The archaeological evaluation of a proposed housing development at Front Street, Portesham, comprised the machine excavation of three trenches in areas likely to be directly affected by proposed groundworks for house construction. All trenches contained deep soil deposits of around 1.20m, likely to represent build-up for a Medieval lynchet, which in trenches 1 and 2 was sealing an earlier, probable colluvial deposit. Natural subsoil was not reached in any trench. Below the lynchet material on the west side of the site in trench 3, was an occupation layer from the Romano-British period, of probable 3rd to 4th-century date. Artefacts recovered from this layer include native and imported finewares, as well as local Black-Burnished Coarseware, including at least one piece which had been vitrified as a result of overfiring. This indicates the presence of a high temperature kiln, furnace or oven on or adjacent to the site, which may have been used for an industrial process, possibly pottery manufacture. Any future disturbance to the most significant archaeological remains present on the site is largely dependent on the nature and depth of groundworks associated with the development, with these remains likely to be present below the Medieval lynchet infill, from a depth of around 1.20m below the existing ground level.