Rotherley Down, on the chalk downland of Cranborne Chase in south Wiltshire, was a small native rural settlement occupied from the Late Iron Age through into the Romano-British period, broadly spanning the 1st century BC to the late 3rd or 4th century AD. It was a modest farming community of roundhouses, storage pits and enclosures, typical of the indigenous downland settlements that persisted under Roman rule in this area.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site is one of the classic examples of a Romano-British "native" settlement of Cranborne Chase, illustrating how local farming populations continued largely unchanged in material culture and economy beneath the broader pattern of Roman administration, supplying grain and livestock to the regional economy rather than adopting villa-style living.
Rotherley was excavated by General Augustus Pitt-Rivers in the 1880s and published in his *Excavations in Cranborne Chase* (vol. II, 1888), in what remains a landmark of methodologically rigorous early archaeology; he recorded circular hut sites, storage pits, ditched enclosures, animal bone assemblages dominated by sheep and cattle, querns, pottery, brooches and coins, demonstrating modest but sustained Romano-British occupation alongside burials of both humans and dogs.
Rotherley Down, on the chalk downland of Cranborne Chase in south Wiltshire, was a small native rural settlement occupied from the Late Iron Age through into the Romano-British period, broadly spanning the 1st century BC to the late 3rd or 4th century AD. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Iron Age and Romano-British settlement remains on Rotherley Down is classified as a Roman settlement — a civilian site in the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer. Roman Britain's archaeology encompasses thousands of sites ranging from legionary fortresses and marching camps to villas, temples and towns.
Several Roman sites lie within a short distance, including A complex of Iron Age and Romano-British settlement on Berwick Down centred 700m south east of Ashcombe Farm (0.8 km), Iron Age and Romano-British settlement remains on Woodcutts Common, 850m south east and 845m SSE of Arundell Cottages (2 km), Section of Roman road, 380m north east of Ashmore Farm (3.5 km). Aubrey Research maps over 2,200 Roman sites across Britain, drawn from the Pleiades ancient world gazetteer.
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Research the area around Iron Age and Romano-British settlement remains on Rotherley Down