SDO9530 - Dorchester, Land to the West and South-West of Poundbury Farm, 2000-2001. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Society

During October 2000 and February to April of 2001 Wessex Archaeology carried out two archaeological evaluations, and a subsequent excavation, on a 28 ha parcel of land to the west and south-west of Poundbury Farm, Dorchester. The sites form part of the Phase II Poundbury Development. The investigations identified a range of features and associated artefacts relating to agrarian activity of Middle to Late Bronze Age date, together with more limited evidence of a Late Iron Age and early Roman presence in the area. Numerous ditches appear to represent remnants of a fairly regular field system set out on an approximate N-S, E-W grid. The distribution of occupation debris recovered from ditch fills suggests the presence of nearby settlements. The evidence from Poundbury Farm, together with that from recent work elsewhere between Maiden Castle and Poundbury, adds to the picture emerging in the Dorchester area of widespread but dispersed late prehistoric agrarian occupation.