Picket Farm, Picket Lane, South Perrot, Dorset - Report on an Archaeological Fieldwalking Exercise and Evaluation, and an Assessment of the results

Wessex Archaeology

A fieldwalking exercise undertaken as part of the project recovered small quantities of prehistoric, Roman and medieval pottery and prehistoric worked flint, with much larger quantities of Post-medieval pottery and ceramic building material. None of these appeared to show any significant concentrations. A small-scale metal detector survey undertaken in the area of the known concentration of metalwork revealed the presence of a small number of Roman coins.

Geophysical survey using a gradiometer undertaken on the Site identified a number of anomalies amongst which was a roughly oval enclosure. On the basis of these results four trenches were excavated, with the two largest focussing on the ovoid enclosure. Sample excavation demonstrated that this was probably Late Neolithic in date, and that it had remained a focus for ritual activity into the Early Bronze Age – dumps of material in the partially silted ditch included a dump of charcoal (C14 dated to 1880 – 1680 BC calibrated) and a mixed dump of pottery (predominantly Collared Urn) and worked flint (including 18 retouched tools) in two interventions in the southern arc of the ditch.

The Site also appears to have been the focus of ritual activity in the Roman period, with the concentration of coins found by the metal detectorists apparently associated with the eastern side of the monument. Three Roman coins were recovered in situ within the trenches, all apparently placed in the base of a small purpose dug scoop. These were probably votive offerings. Two large irregular pits to the west of the ring ditch, possibly dug as quarry pits, may point to the mound being enhanced in the Roman period.

The ring ditch and mound were probably extant into the Post-medieval period – it seems no coincidence that is lies on the boundary between two fields, whilst the absence of any medieval or Post-medieval finds from the area of the ring ditch suggests that the mound was intact at this time, and only ploughed out subsequently.