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Excavations at Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorest, 1939

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

Katherine M. Richardson
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Extract

Poundbury Camp is situated on a bluff of the Upper Chalk overlooking the river Frome and its water-meadows (pl. LXVII). The approach from the south and west slopes gently riverwards, but to the east the site is separated from the outskirts of Dorchester by a shallow combe. Though its situation is hardly that of a hill-fort, usually isolated on a detached hill or promontory, nevertheless the camp holds a commanding position in relation to its immediate surroundings, and its multiple defences, now sadly defaced, must once have presented a considerable obstacle to enemy attack. Though not comparable in size to the oppidum of Maiden Castle, for it encloses an area of only 15 acres, the existence of such a stronghold less than two miles distant from the major hill-fort seemed to require investigation. By whom had it been constructed, for what purpose, and to what extent had it been occupied, were questions demanding explanation. It was with the intention of bringing some light to bear on these problems that excavations were carried out at Poundbury in the spring of 1939.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , October 1940 , pp. 429 - 448
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1940

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References

page 430 note 1 See G. B. Grundy, Arch. Journ. xciv, 258 and pl. 1, Road 40.

page 430 note 2 It was originally intended that a cutting should be driven through the camp, but thanks to the efforts of T. Colfox of Bridport, supported by Charles Warne, F.S.A., and other local archaeologists and the Royal Archaeological Institute, a protest was lodged by the Council of the Dorchester Museum and the tunnel was substituted for the cutting.

page 431 note 1 Camden and Hutchins considered that Poundbury was a Danish camp, while Stukely and Charles Warne were of the opinion that it was a Roman work (see Warne, , Ancient Dorset (1872), p. 217Google Scholar). Edward Cunnington was the first to recognize that the site was pre-Roman, having dug in the western ditch and found ‘Celtic potsherds' (see Moule, H. J., Dorchester Antiquities (1906), p. 20Google Scholar).

page 431 note 2 Charles Warne quotes from a Guide to Dorchester, mentioning that ‘Roman' coffins of Ham Hill stone were found near the north-east corner of Poundbury (Ancient Dorset (1872), note to p. 219Google Scholar). Recent work in the field below the eastern rampart has brought to light other Roman coffins of Ham Hill and Portland stone. This area was undoubtedly the site of a Roman cemetery.

page 432 note 1 Antiq. Journ. xi (1931), 22Google Scholar.

page 432 note 2 Ibid. xii (1932), 3–9; xiii (1933), 162; see also Curwen, E. C., The Archaeology of Sussex (1937), p. 239Google Scholar.

page 433 note 1 Antiq. Journ. xvii (1937), 265Google Scholar.

page 434 note 1 See Arch. Cantiana, li (1940), fig. 6, section ABGoogle Scholar.

page 434 note 2 To be published in a report of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries.

page 435 note 1 Grundy, G. B., Arch. Journ. xciv (1937), pl. 1Google Scholar, Road 38, and ibid, xcv (1938), p. 191.

page 435 note 2 Such a ford existed in medieval days a little to the east of modern Dorchester, 300 yards downstream from the present Grey's Bridge in the parish of Fordington. The Roman and Iron Age ford may have been here or further westwards.

page 436 note 1 A stretch of the aqueduct south of Whitfield Farm is referred to by Warne, Charles (Ancient Dorset, 1872, p. 48)Google Scholar as a ‘Pastoral camp', and the section adjoining Poundbury, as a ‘terraced road'.

page 436 note 2 Warne (ibid., p. 219) notes that ‘the cutting of the railway has revealed a clear section of the inner and outer ditch (of Poundbury)'.

page 436 note 3 Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiq. Field Club, xxiii (1902), 1Google Scholar.

page 438 note 1 Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist. and Antiq. Field Club, xlvi (1925), 1Google Scholar and map.

page 438 note 2 Ibid. 8, footnote by C. S. Prideaux.

page 439 note 1 Vitruvius, viii. 6. I.

page 439 note 2 Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist. and Arch. Soc. lx (1939), 14Google Scholar.

page 440 note 1 A section dug in the summer of 1939 by Mr. K. Selby, near Bradford Peverell, showed similar wedges of clay.

page 441 note 1 Excavations in Cranborne Chase, vol. i.

page 442 note 1 Bulleid, A. and Gray, H. St. George, The Glastonbury Lake Village (1911), ii, p. 419Google Scholar and fig. 149, type C.

page 443 note 1 Proc. Hants Field Club, xli (1933), fig. xi, p. 23Google Scholar.

page 443 note 2 Bushe-Fox, J. P., Excavations at Hengistbury Head in 1911–12 (Soc. Ant. Lond. 1915), pl. xvi, 5Google Scholar.

page 443 note 3 All Cannings Cross, pl. 28, 3 and 10.

page 446 note 1 Excavations in New Forest Roman Pottery Sites (1927), pl. xviii, 1–3Google Scholar, xvii, 9, 19, xxiv, 5.

page 446 note 2 Antiq. Journ. xviii (1938), 127Google Scholar.

page 446 note 3 Ibid., 126 and pl. xxxv, 4, 5, 8, and 9.