{"id":4192,"date":"2016-07-06T15:24:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T15:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/postgraduate\/?p=4192"},"modified":"2016-07-06T15:24:25","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T15:24:25","slug":"bu-archaeologists-discover-more-about-prehistoric-life-in-dorsets-iron-age-duropolis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2016\/07\/06\/bu-archaeologists-discover-more-about-prehistoric-life-in-dorsets-iron-age-duropolis-2\/","title":{"rendered":"BU archaeologists discover more about prehistoric life in Dorset\u2019s Iron Age \u2018Duropolis\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"P1040057\"<\/a>Excavations of a prehistoric town in rural Dorset \u2013 the largest unenclosed settlement yet uncovered in the UK \u2013 have revealed more about the extent of the Iron Age occupation and the people who lived there.<\/p>\n

Bournemouth University (BU) archaeologists are investigating the site in Winterborne Kingston – dubbed \u2018Duropolis\u2019, after the local Iron Age tribe the Durotriges \u2013 which was first uncovered last year, and have shown more about the extent of the pre-Roman settlement.<\/p>\n

Covering an area of just under four hectares, the densely occupied area contained over 150 roundhouses, along with substantial storage facilities, animal pens and agricultural outbuildings.<\/p>\n

The site appears to have been occupied from around 100 BC \u2013 at a time when most of the hill fort enclosures of Dorset, such as Maiden Castle and Hod Hill, were being abandoned.<\/p>\n

The site is being excavated by BU staff and students as part of the annual Durotriges Big Dig.<\/p>\n

Project co-director Paul Cheetham said: \u201cLarge open settlements such as this may have been the natural successors to the heavily defended hill forts, perhaps suggesting a time of relative peace and stability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Co-Director Dr Miles Russell said: \u201cThe existence of this site, coupled with the evidence that Maiden Castle was largely abandoned in the first century BC, shows that the idea that when the Roman legions arrived in AD 43, they attacked the hill forts and slaughtered the inhabitants inside is a myth.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cPeople think that towns were introduced by the Romans in the 1st century AD, and that\u2019s simply not true.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve got here are all the elements of an urban system a good hundred years before the Romans arrived and it seems to be continuing up until the point that they left.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re finding is continuity; a very densely settled area providing a good idea of what life was really like in prehistory at the time the Romans arrived.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excavations this year have uncovered the southernmost limits of Duropolis, uncovering a Late Iron Age cemetery in the process \u2013 with eight bodies discovered to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderstanding of our Iron Age past is significantly improved by this find, given the advances in scientific investigation \u2013 such as DNA and isotope analysis which provide an insight into population movements and ancestry,\u201d said Cheetham.<\/p>\n

The skeletons have been taken to Bournemouth University to be examined further.<\/p>\n

Cheetham said: \u201cAccessing skeletal information from this date in the UK is extremely rare, as most pre-Roman tribes either practised crematation or placed bodies in rivers or bogs, so this data could completely change our understanding of the Iron Age.\u201d<\/p>\n

A further discovery at the site this year is a Late or Post Roman farming settlement, consisting of five buildings and associated kilns and ovens, dating to the period AD 300 \u2013 450.<\/p>\n

Such a settlement, which is rare in the archaeological record, is helping to shine a light into the so-called Dark Ages that followed the collapse of Roman power in the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have here is evidence for a broad continuity of settlement from the Iron Age to the end of Roman Britain,\u201d said Dr Russell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was only after Britain cut itself loose from the protective embrace of Rome that things went disastrously wrong for the communities in this part of Southern England with the agricultural, social, military and political systems that supported them collapsing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019re shining a light now into that period and we\u2019re seeing how people lived, what they were eating, what things they were farming and it\u2019s all information that\u2019s never been discovered before in this area. In that respect we\u2019re really opening up windows onto the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the public have the chance to see and explore the site for themselves at the Durotriges Big Dig Open Day at Winterborne Kingston on Sunday 10 July, from 10am to 3pm.<\/p>\n

Originally published on BU News<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excavations of a prehistoric town in rural Dorset \u2013 the largest unenclosed settlement yet uncovered in the UK \u2013 have revealed more about the extent of the Iron Age occupation and the people who lived there. Bournemouth University (BU) archaeologists are investigating the site in Winterborne Kingston – dubbed \u2018Duropolis\u2019, after the local Iron Age… Read more » about BU archaeologists discover more about prehistoric life in Dorset\u2019s Iron Age \u2018Duropolis\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1096,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1663,704],"tags":[325,761,130,48,762],"class_list":["post-4192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-postgraduate","category-student-life","tag-archaeology","tag-big-dig","tag-bournemouth-university","tag-bu","tag-durotriges"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1096"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4192\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}