What they found

Local metal detectorists discovered a scattering of brooches and low denomination Roman coins on a hill-top field near South Perrott, Dorset. Working with Miles Russell, of Bournemouth University, Time Team brought in its resources to uncover a Roman temple, only to find an undiscovered prehistoric site.

Geophysical survey of the field established that there was no discernible evidence for the double-walled rectilinear features expected. Fieldwalking across the same area found no Roman pottery but did turn up more coins dating from the second to fourth centuries AD.

Excavation over a concentration of previously discovered coins revealed a curving ditch. Alongside this ditch a series of small scoops were discovered with single Roman coins buried at the bottom, indicative of veneration.

Open area excavation revealed an oval, short long barrow. Finds from the circuit ditch included bone, burnt wood, Late Neolithic flint and chert tools, and pottery dating to the Early Bronze Age. Small quarries were found outside the ditch circuit. Postholes in the bottom of the ditch and burnt daub indicated that a palisade, with wattle and daub fencing, might have surrounded the monument.

Landscape analysis revealed that, while there were Bronze-Age barrows on the surrounding hilltops, this site, secluded by three rivers and lines of visibility, was more typical of a Neolithic monument. It was also on the line of a probable Roman ridge way. A story had been uncovered, then, of people in the Roman period venerating a Neolithic monument, which had continued in use into the early Bronze Age.

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