The 2018 season begins!
Cat Langham writes: I’m part of the excavations at Dorstone Hill, and will be keeping you up to date with what we’re doing over the next few weeks! We’ll be keeping you updated with pictures of how excavations are coming along, info from the site, and general news of what we’re all up to at https://dorstonedigs.wordpress.com
As usual, there will a series of lectures held in Dorstone Village hall, so do come along to find out more about the site and surrounding area!
Talks start at 7.30 and are £1 on the door.
This year we have:
Wednesday 27th June
‘Dorstone Hill in Neolithic Britain: A landscape of national significance’
Professor Julian Thomas
Wednesday 4th July
‘How much do we really know about Arthur’s Stone?’
Dr. Keith Ray
Wednesday 11th July
‘Dealing with the dead at Dorstone Hill’
(plus an update on the Rock Crystal analysis)
Dr. Nick Overton
Wednesday 18th July
‘Dorstone Hill in 2018: an interim overview’
Professor Julian Thomas
Dorstone Hill is a site of special archaeological significance, and we’re excited to be back excavating this year. Between 2011-2016 we found three amazing Neolithic long barrows, placed end to end, a rare monument arrangement. Each was made in a distinct style, the Eastern featuring a timber chamber between huge post-holes, the Central being surrounded by a timber palisade, and the Western being surrounded by a dry-stone wall. All three were topped off with a stone cairn, but the different styles may show different groups gathered here and created their own unique designs.
Even more significantly, under each mound was found the remains of a burnt timber hall. This mysterious process is called domicide, and to burn buildings around 40 metres long would have taken a lot of effort! With the location of the hill between the Golden and Wye Valleys, the burning would have been a very visible beacon that lasted for days.
This may have been an act of creating memories, with the later mounds solidifying this community memory, and marking the area as a special place.
Dorstone Hill is a complex site, and has even more to offer archaeologists than the amazing long mounds. A little higher on the hill, geophysics showed what looked like a Causewayed Enclosure, a large Neolithic feature, which may have been a large gathering place. Last year we began to investigate this feature, and last year’s blog posts are a great place to find out all the details of the 2017 season. This year we’re back to see what else it can tell us!
Read more at
https://dorstonedigs.wordpress.com/2018/06/27/the-2018-season-begins/
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