Down Farm in Spring

DD members went to see Martin Green's self built museum of all the finds and features he has excavated over many years on his farm on Cranborne Chase.

We then had a look at some of the projects he has undertaken in the landscape, such as the Neolithic finds and bodies he found down a sinkhole:

The rare pond barrow:

Southamton Uni are undertaking a dig on his land this year, looking at Iron Age features, including a carefully buried sheep:

All this in an area of outstanding beauty, with Martin's work in bringing the Dorset landscapes flora and fauna back to how it was before intensive farming:

A wonderful and informative day. Thanks Martin.

Finds from Fieldwalking

Members of Dorset Diggers living in the West of the County have started field walking on a field 600 metres southwest of the Iron Age Hillfort of Pilsdon Pen.

Permission has been given for us to field walk a number of fields in this area. The first field looked in a promising place as, though being flattish is on a promontory jetting out into Marshwood Vale with steep slopes falling away on the East, West and South sides.

Between three and nine members walked for three to four hours a day over three days, dodging a few showers on the first day.

Surveying was carried out with a combination of GPS map reference, tape measures, a range finder and ranging poles.  Having picked finds from 39, twenty metre squares, this was reduced down to 41 potential finds from 23 squares after examination by Chris Tripp. Most of these were worked flint with some possible Roman pottery.

As crops are now appearing in the fields we intend to resume field walking at this site after the fields have been re ploughed.

We are grateful to the landowners for this opportunity.

Written by,

Richard Hood

Funding

Some good news coming soon on funding and the start of the BIG DIG! Keep looking in...

Fieldwalking

This month has seen DDCAG fieldwalking in West Dorset, near Pilsden Pen Iron Age hillfort. This involves careful examination of the ground after ploughing to find individual artefacts that are then plotted and bagged up.

Most items will be pottery or flint, but one never knows what will turn up.

It's always a thrill to find something from hundreds or thousands of years ago just lying on the ground.

Never mind Alison, perhaps next time...

By doing this exercise members 'get their eye in' when it comes to recognising types of finds and also adds to the possible areas of settlement in an area or a field, due to the exact plotting of the location of artefacts. Our finds will be looked at by experts and dated. Some pics will be put up here shortly.

Fossil Festival Lyme Regis

Dorset Diggers had a stall at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival this May weekend. Lots of new contacts were made, including home educators, a Palaeontologist from UCL, a brick expert who will help us with our bricks from the Drift Road excavation and many individuals who are interested in the group.

 
The town was packed and several thousand people must have come through the marquee over the three days. Many other heritage and geological groups were represented.

Nether Compton site visit

Saturday 5th April saw DDCAG members visit the site we will be digging for the next few years.

We met at the car park and Alison gave out the new DD badges we have had made.

We headed up the lane toward the site in rather murky conditions, although it was mild. Being misty we did not have a nice view from the ridge when we arrived.

 The field had been ploughed and Chris pointed out the area next to the hedge where we will be excavating, to locate the pits and possibly have a look at the 'temple' that had shown up on the geophiz results. 

After a nice lunch at Sherborne we visited the museum in the town to look at the types of finds we may encounter on our site. The best of the finds will be shown at the museum. 

Nether Compton talk

Chris gave a talk at the village hall at Nether Compton on 26th March. He went through some of the hoards that have been found from the Neolithic to the Anglo-Saxons and what sort of materials were deposited in the ground. He then explained the NC project where DDCAG will be excavating the field where the 22,500+ Romano-British coin hoard was unearthed in 1989. The Metal Detecting club that found the haord was represented by several members in the audience, so it was a great opportunity to form a partnership between the groups so we can share information and help further the project into the future.