Monument record MDO18086 - Flagstones Late Iron Age burial of infant in pit 00302

Pit 00302 contained disarticulated fragments of an infant less than 6 months old in the lower fills. In the upper fill, or perhaps in a deliberately cut grave, was the contracted inhumation of an adult male. No grave goods.

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

Pit 00302 lay in the southwest part of the site. It was a bell-shaped storage pit which contained fragments of bone from an infant less than six months old in one of its lower fills. The lower fills of the pit also had a number of deliberate deposits of articulated animal bone.

In the upper fills of the pit, or perhaps placed in a deliberately cut grave in the tops of the pit, was the body of an adult in a supine position with the legs drawn up to the chest and the left arm more tightly flexed than the right.

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 (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

May 6 2010 11:03AM