Monument record MDO18077 - Flagstones cremation pit 00260

A small shallow pit containing an adult cremation, which lay within a penannular ditch in the southern side of the Flagstones Neolithic enclosure. It is associated with two other cremation pits and may be Bronze Age in date.

Found during excavation at Flagstones by Wessex Archaeology in 1987-1988 in advance of the construction of the Dorchester By-pass. The following description is abstracted from the final published report on the site (1). The numbers in square brackets refer to context numbers quoted in the report.

A small pit situated in the southern part of the Flagstones enclosure within a shallow crescentic gully [00200]. Pit [00260] was about 1.4m across and 0.2 m deep and may have been recut. It contained the remains of a single adult cremation burial. It lay adjacent to two other cremation pits [00256] and [00258]l.

This cremation is not dated but its association as part of an enclosed cremation cemetery suggests it may be Bronze Age in date.

National Monuments Record, NMR Monument Record, SY 78 NW 67 (Index). SDO9937.

Wessex Archaeology, 1987, Dorchester By-pass (Excavation archive). SDO9385.

Woodward, P J and Smith, R J C, 1987, Survey and excavation along the route of the Southern Dorchester By-pass, 1986-1987 – an interim note, 79-89 (Article in serial). SDO9381.

<1> Smith, R J C et al, 1997, Excavations along the Route of the Dorchester By-pass, Dorset, 1986-8, 27-48 (Monograph). SDO9379.

Record last edited

Feb 8 2006 4:43AM