Flowers Barrow, Lulworth, Dorset - Post-excavation Assessment and Updated Project Design

Wessex Archaeology

Wessex Archaeology undertook the excavation of three trenches, centred on NGR 386455 80595, at the Iron Age hillfort known as Flowers Barrow, Lulworth, Dorset, a Scheduled Monument lying within the South Dorset Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The works were designed to preserve by record some of the remains of the monument to mitigate unavoidable loss due to coastal erosion, with approximately a third of the hillfort already lost and erosion ongoing. The work was also designed to gain an insight into what might already have been lost through the investigation of interior features of the monument.

Trench 1 was targeted on an active ‘tear’ in the earthwork defences caused by cliff slippage. The excavation here revealed the presence of two large postholes that could relate to entrance/gatehouse structures or the revetment of the internal bank, as well as a series of deposits deriving from erosion of the bank. These might have been associated with multiple phases of occupation. A possible buried soil was identified within the sequence of deposits and sampled for further environmental analysis. Although the trench was comparatively narrow, it has shown that there is significant archaeological potential in this area of the monument for the survival of features and deposits relating to the inner defences.

Trench 2 investigated two possible roundhouse platforms. These platforms comprised shallow subcircular depressions surrounded by low gravel banks, but lacked associated cut features such as postholes, hearths and clear floor surfaces. They were largely devoid of finds but have been sampled for further environmental analysis.

Trench 3 aimed to characterise and record the preservation of a very small area of the interior of the hillfort on part of the cliff face already subject to slippage and likely to be lost to cliff erosion in the near future. No evidence of stratified archaeological deposits or features was present, but it is uncertain if these were sparse within the interior or (less likely) lay at a greater depth sealed by more recently eroded deposits.

This document includes an assessment of the archaeological deposits, finds and environmental remains recorded during the excavation. It also provides an updated project design for any further post-excavation analysis required, as well recommending publication of a summary of the results in the county archaeological journal.