Monument record MDO320 - Neolithic pit on West Hill, Bincombe

SY 70398476. A pit containing fragments of Neolithic bowl, four whitish chert flakes, and six mottled grey flint flakes, was revealed during construction of a reservoir at Sutton Poyntz in 1937. The bowl is consistent with the Hembury - Maiden Castle group of Windmill Hill ware. In Dorset County Museum (Acc No 1937.76). <1-3>

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1959, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1957, 112-113 (Serial). SDO57.

In his "Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles", 1954, p. 383, Professor Stuart Piggott lists a bowl of Group W (Western Neolithic, subdivision uncertain) from Sutton Poyntz. The details of this find have never been published, and I have his permission, and that of the finder, Dr. E. A. Gee, to put them on record.

The fragments of the bowl were drawn in reconstruction by Prof. Piggott in 1938 (Fig. 2, A), and he now describes the vessel as consistent with the Hembury-Maiden Castle group of Windmill Hare ware. The pieces, enough to give a complete profile, were found by Dr. Gee in June 1937 when, on behalf of the Museum, he investigated a pit revealed when a reservoir was built on the down above Sutton Poyntz (SY 70398476). A briefly annotated section drawing of the pit by Dr. Gee is the only record, apart from the finds (D.C.M.1937.76), and after a lapse of years he is unable to add to it.

Besides the fragments of the bowl, the objects consist of four whitish chert flakes and six mottled grey flint flakes, sharp in fracture, two of the latter showing some secondary working at one end; and, in the same box as the bowl fragments, the curious pottery handle here illustrated as Fig. 2, B. There is no specific mention of this handle in Dr. Gee's note, or in the Accessions register which refers to "Fragments of Neolithic A pottery, worked flints and flint flakes", nor does Dr. Gee remember it; it does not appear to have been sent with the other sherds for examination by Prof. Piggott. As it is at present difficult to date it - beyond rejecting, as Prof. Piggott does, the likelihood of a Neolithic attribution - it is best to treat it as presumably an unstratified find of some intrinsic interest. It certainly offers no grounds for doubting the Neolithic age of the pit, which yielded so many sherds of one bowl.

It appears from the section drawing, which it has not been thought necessary to reproduce here, that the 6 ins. of topsoil or 'humus' overlying the pit were archaeologically sterile. The pit, cut in the natural chalk, was filled, it seems uniformly, with 'heavy brown soil' containing some charcoal, and pieces of limestone and flint; and the pottery and flakes, including a 'good end scraper', were all in this filling. The pit, where sectioned, was about 4 and a half feet wide and 3 feet deep, but irregularities in the drawn profile suggest that an axial section was not possible. Thus the pit may have been wider and deeper, while a pair of holes about 6 ins. wide, cut in the chalk but breaking through into the pit, are marked as post-holes. The significance of these holes is not apparent. A note on the drawing marks 'position of handle (lug)' , presumably a lug of the Neolithic bowl, at a depth of about 1 and a half feet down in the pit filling.

R. A. H. FARRAR.

<2> Prehistoric Society, 1964, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 30, 376 (Serial). SDO17204.

<3> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 511 (Monograph). SDO150.

‘West Hill SY 70398476 Neolithic bowl of Windmill Hill ware with flint and chert flakes in pit (LXXIX (1957), 112-3, under Sutton Poyntz.’

<4> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/093 RCHME Inventory: Dorset II (South-East) (Unpublished document). SDO17434.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 454462 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Feb 27 2023 3:26PM