Shale we dance?

You may remember the shale bangle from a previous post. The lower piece has been sitting in a damp bag since March and was finally recognised as another shale artefact. Better late than never.

 

DMV Dug Done

After finding some nice pottery artefacts, as modeled by the lovely Holly here, the DMV in the pond field is now closed.

Nice finger pinching there. 

On our last day we were taken by the landowner on a tour of the nearby quarries where the stone was worked by the villagers, mostly for building material and mortar making. Hence the stone fragments on our site. 

What a lovely view of the Isle of Purbeck countryside.

We now have a small exhibition of our site at the Langton Matravers museum. Go and visit if you are holidaying in Dorset and seeing the delights of the Isle of Purbeck. 

 

 

 

Eventful event!

 

Whilst attending the Isle of Purbeck heritage event this last weekend, where we had a display of our work at the DMV, the Bournemouth University Marine group showed us their work, as outlined by this poster.

They showed us their finds relating to the Purbeck Marble mortar vessels they had found on a wreck. This is the same material that has come up on our site. 

So it is quite possible that mortars were being made at our DMV, with stone taken from the nearby quarry up the hill. 

One very exciting find was this strange looking object found only last week.

This is a shale bangle blank. This material was used to make bangles at Gallows Gore, now Lander's Quarry, just along the road from our site, with other Romano-British evidence being found there. Shale workshops were also at Povington, Blashenwell and Kimmeridge.   

 

 

  

Ghost town?

Two more trenches have been opened and another re-cut of the medieval boundary ditch has been found. Plenty of pottery and bones too.   

However, no sign of any postholes, bedding trenches, pits or cesspits. All very strange. This area should be where the houses are located. 

We will open one more trench and hope to find some evidence of habitations.