Proc Dorset Natur Hist Archaeol Soc 126

Article on how the development of Weymouth as a port was influenced by the fact that it became a centre for privateering and the sale of prize ships taken from the enemy during the Napoleonic War.

A number of Early Neolithic pits containing substantial assemblages of pottery and worked flint were recorded at Middle Farm, Dorchester. These represent important additions to our knowledge of non-monumental activity in this area. Further pits, roundhouses and field boundary ditches extend the known pattern of settlement and field systems in the immediate vicinity of the South Winterbourne valley during the Bronze Age with both Early--Middle and Late Bronze Age components present. Additional finds include a Palaeolithic hand-axe, Late Mesolithic flintwork and Late Iron Age/early Romano-British marl pits. Specialist reports include

A small excavation and subsequent watching brief uncovered the remains of a Bronze Age settlement, consisting of a single roundhouse, an enclosure ditch which appears to have been constructed later, and a number of pits. The ditch was subsequently recut, and one of the pits contained a deliberate deposit of one complete storage vessel and one incomplete, not apparently connected with any human remains but possibly originally a cremation burial. Radiocarbon dates provide a range from the seventeenth to the thirteenth centuries cal BC. Pottery evidence, albeit derived from a small assemblage, also suggests two separate phases of deposition within this span. Environmental evidence was slight, but does suggest exploitation of both wild resources and cereals. Specialist reports include

Fieldwalking coupled with geophysical survey has revealed an extensive pattern of settlement and land use in Sandford Orcas during the Romano-British period. This is despite the fact that no settlement had previously been recorded in the parish. The majority of these sites are located on the 90m contour at the foot of the Inferior Oolite ridge to the east and south of the village, close to a spring or stream. The authors argue that this pattern of dispersed rural settlement in the Romano-British period must now be considered to be the norm for South Somerset and North Dorset. Concentrations of villas are known from the Sherborne and Ilchester areas but extensive fieldwork associated with the South Cadbury Environs project has uncovered a network of small rural settlements.

Description of some thirty-one graffiti depicting sailing ships from Winspit Quarry, which was worked from the eighteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries and from which stone was loaded directly onto vessels below the cliffs. Most of the ships depicted are fore and aft rigged sailing barges, but three are square-rigged ships.

Article on an anchor of an unusual and probably ancient design, said to have been found in the Weymouth backwater, close to the present Backwater Bridge, during or before the 1960s.

Article examining evidence to indicate whether St Aldhelm's Chapel ever served as a lighthouse, as indicated by the writings of Aldhelm in the late-seventh century, and whether his description of the machina could relate to an actual structure once located on the headland at Renscombe. Includes

Field evaluation based at High Lea Farm in the parish of Hinton Martell, consisting of geophysical and topographic survey and targeted excavation, included investigations into the nature and extent of a largely levelled barrow cemetery and preliminary examination of a probable Late Iron Age/Romano-British rural settlement.

Article on the identification of two sites which revealed evidence of small-scale metalworking, possibly starting in the pre-Roman period, near Cave Hole, Portland. Includes

Short, separately authored entries on archaeological fieldwork carried out and finds made in Dorset during 2004, plus some from 2003, arranged by project type, and within types by place alphabetically. Headings cover excavations and survey; evaluations; palaeoenvironmental; building recording and phasing; archaeological desk-based assessment and walkover survey; watching briefs; watching briefs with negative results; recording; and Bournemouth University undergraduate research 2004. Entries include