Although our meetings were disrupted by the Covid19 pandemic, we were able to join our sister groups of Shaftesbury District Archaeology Group and East Dorset Antiquarian Society for their monthly meetings via Zoom.
Archaeological Projects
In the summer months we try to join in or organise a local archaeological project but again plans for 2020 were curtailed by the Covid19 restrictions.
We were able to organise a short field walking project at Shepherds’ Corner farm in Durweston, in February 2020, many thanks to George Hosford and Dougal Hosford for permission to walk their field. We discovered significant accumulations of burnt flint along with some Bronze Age flint scrapers, suggesting a well used activity site from that era. Analysis of the finds is being worked on and results will be shared with the group.
We hope to organise a number of field walking projects in the Blandford area looking for prehistoric activity to build a picture of how the land was used before the Romans came.
Tarrant Launceston Project
A feature was identified through a crop mark at Tarrant Launceston that seemed to be a circular enclosure with an interrupted ditch. Geophysics by Dave Stewart confirmed the interrupted nature of the ditch which suggested an Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure. The Archaeology Group was planning to field walk part of the enclosure but in March 2021, it was discovered that Wessex Water were putting a small pipeline through the feature. Due to Covid restrictions only a few members of the group were able to carry out a limited excavation. The finds from the excavation are still being analysed but suggest the feature is, indeed, an Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure. We are hoping that radiocarbon dating will confirm the Early Neolithic date. We hope there will be opportunities for members of the BMAG to carry out more fieldwork on the site in the future.