A Dorset midden

I remember hearing of the then newly discovered middens at Potterne and East Chisenbury (end of the Bronze Age feature, Jul/Aug 2019/167) when Andrew Lawson was investigating these in the mid 1980s, as featured in his comprehensive survey of Wessex archaeology ( Chalkland: An Archaeology of Stonehenge & its Region, 2007).

The characteristics of these complex sites seemed familiar and, in the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society 93 (1971) I found reference to a site west of Chalbury hillfort, which appears somewhat similar to those further east in Purbeck. This site extended along a north-south aligned spur parallel to the hillfort and overlooking Weymouth Bay. Visible in a pipe trench along the ridge was “an unusual depth of black soil” at least one metre thick and extending for at least 200m. From the illustrations, this was complex in structure and long lived, with finds ranging through the Iron Age but including some Roman material in the upper levels and surfaces of stone and shale slabs, interleaved between the layers of soil and ash. Shale bracelet rough-outs also suggested imports from further east in Purbeck and recall similar finds from Nacqueville on the Cherbourg Peninsular, demonstrating the long distance trade in such unfinished objects.

Christopher Sparey-Green, London