Abstract
Two important discoveries mark the approach of the closing week of excavation at Maiden Castle, Dorchester, where Dr. R. E. Mortimer Wheeler is at work on behalf of the Society of Antiquaries and the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society. The adult burial (see NATURE, Sept. 5, p. 395) is now found to date from the Iron Age c. 300 B.C. and to be situated at the base of the rampart of the earlier enclosure at the point of contact with the rampart of the larger and later Maiden Castle. The character of the filling of the grave indicates that it is contemporary with the construction of the latter, and its position, as well as the fact that it is the only adult burial so far discovered within the enclosure, fully justify the view taken by Dr. Wheeler that it may possibly have been a ceremonial burial connected with foundation rites, such as are known to have been observed elsewhere, to mark the first great extension of Maiden Castle. The second discovery is that of a third structure on the summit of the hill adjoining the Roman temple and contemporary with it. It is built of dry stone walling, without mortar, and is circular or polyhedral in form. Its character is still under investigation. Further details connected with the east gate have now been made clear. The southern of the two openings, which was previously thought to be an addition, has now been shown, it is reported in The Times of September 26, to be an original feature of the earliest structure, as a causeway of unexcavated chalk runs across the line of the ditch in front of it. This causeway was much mutilated in late Roman times, when the entrance was blocked by a masonry wall built with a core of chalk quarried from the causeway. The line of quarrying, associated with Roman material, has been discovered, and the excavation here is now nearly completed.
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Foundation Rites at Maiden Castle, Dorchester. Nature 138, 580 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138580a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138580a0