SDO15290 - A Late Bronze Age Pottery Production Site and Settlement at Fosters Field, Tinney's Lane, Sherborne, Dorset

'In 2002 an excavation was undertaken by Exeter Archaeology in advance of residential development at Foster's Field, Tinney's Lane, Sherborne, Dorset, a c. 5ha site located on a south facing slope above the River Yeo. A unique example of a Late Bronze Age pottery production site and multi-phase prehistoric settllement was revealed. The earliest features comprised six pits containing sherds of Neolithic Peterborough ware pottery, an infant inhumation and fragments of a possible Early Bronze Age accessory cup. During these periods the site was within an open landscape of long-established grassland and included the rearing of domestic livestock. The majority of archeological remans formed part of a small Late Bronze Age settlement, which included circular hut structures and several ancillary features, together with a range of non-domestic features and deposits associated with the production of pottery vessels and fired clay objects.. The Late Bronze Age pottery assemblage is one of the largest ever recovered and shares many similarities with other assemblages from the plain ware phase of the post Deverel-Rimbury tradition. Similar assemblages in the southwest and southern England have primarily been dated between the 10th and 8th centuries cal BC.The assemblage at Foster's Field has been shown to pre-date other plain ware assemblages from sites in Dorset and Somerset, and represents a newly recognised ceramic sub-phase, spanning the transition between middle to Late Bronze Age.'