Corfe 2.0

 

Back to the garden near Corfe Castle on a lovely sunny day. We backfilled Test Pit #1 after recording and then carried on with Test Pit #2, which reached a depth of 1m, so the feature detected at that depth had to remain unexcavated. The stratigraphy being sandy, it was decided that H&S kicked in. Very frustrating. We had several more pieces of pottery come up, again looking like BBW, but this could have been redeposited from higher up the slope from the crown of the hill to the west, as the finds did not come from a secure context.     

So, we decided to open up Trench #3 and then we will return to excavate this larger area.  

Corfe Blimey!

Dorset Diggers members worked on digging test pits in a garden near Corfe Castle last week. several archaeological finds have been found in the area in the past and we now have several more!

One of the test pits.

A decorated piece of pottery, probably Romano-British.

A nice rim of similar date.

We will be returning soon to open up a 2m x 3m trench and hope to find more artefacts and features too. 

 

Happy New Year!

 BEST WISHES FOR 2025 FROM DORSET DIGGERS COMMUNITY ARCHAEOLOGY GROUP!

KEEP LOOKING IN FOR ALL THE EXCITING NEWS OF OUR DIGS AND PROJECTS FOR THE COMING YEAR - IT'S GOING TO BE A BUSY ONE.

Roman eviction notice?

The view from the hill

A presentation on the Waddon Hill project was given on the 26th at Beaminster Museum by the Senior Archaeologist at Bournemouth University. What we know of the site is that it was a Roman barracks for infantry and cavalry not long after the invasion and that no evidence was found during the excavations of the 1960s to suggest that there was an Iron Age hillfort before that. However, it was shown that there is a bank that hugs the contours of part of the hill. As is well known the Roman army built their fortifications in straight lines and occupied strongholds of any tribe they wished to subdue and it would be unusual for them to occupy Waddon Hill as a 'virgin' site, so this may be the first evidence that the hill was already used and then converted for their use. 

Part of the project was to undertake some geophysical surveying (see the previous post on Waddon Hill) and that was carried out. It is now hoped to dig some test pits to see if any new information can be found about the Roman occupation and any further evidence for Iron Age use. DDCAG are going to be part of this investigation in 2025, so keep looking in for more news on this important site.    

   

A Ditch in Time?

The 5m square test trench has proved very fruitful. Ditch features and Early Medieval dating evidence has been produced and the evidence suggests that the ditches bordering the house platforms have been changed and enlarged over time, hence why the geophysics results for the ditch looked 'fuzzy'. 

In March 2025 we will open a 10m square trench and the archaeology will be much easier to see. We are all looking forward to it. Thanks to all the hard working volunteers that braved the horrible conditions.     

 

A Ditch in Time...

 

Despite the terrible conditions our valiant volunteers managed to do some sterling work on the E-W ditch yesterday. We are nearly done digging the sections through the fill and then recording can be undertaken. Drawings and photos can be created and levels taken. Some more pottery was unearthed and these will allow us to date the feature, but I would be surprised if they were not medieval. 

The theory at the moment is that this ditch was created to produce enough earth to build up the ground so that houses could be constructed above the wet surrounding landscape. 

The geophysics shows that a S-N ditch butts up to the E-W ditch (the darker thick lines) and the houses would have been constructed in the lower left and lower right of this image. Like the rest of the DMV to the East they would have faced the holloway to the south. The area to the North is very boggy and it would probably have been so in the medieval period too.    

Our first ditch!

The drainage ditch has worked very well and although we had to bail-out the dug features 90% of the water had run off down the incline, as planned.  

Once we had then cleaned the base of the trench we could see the linear feature running west-east. We started cutting slots and now have some nice sections to draw along its length. Importantly, we have some pottery fragments that will allow us to date the ditch. 

Although the conditions are challenging we also found another feature, but it is amorphous, so we will have to investigate this one later. 

We are now hoping that the rain will break for a few days (for a few weeks?) and we can continue to investigate the lives of the medieval people that once lived on this spot.