This is a Romano-British settlement situated on the chalk downland of Blandford Race Down in Dorset, occupying a position alongside two earlier Bronze Age bowl barrows. The settlement is typical of the small open agricultural communities that proliferated across the Dorset chalk in the later Iron Age and Roman period (roughly 1st–4th centuries AD), forming part of the densely populated rural hinterland of the Durotrigian civitas.
Source: Pleiades — A Community-Built Gazetteer and Graph of Ancient Places. View the Pleiades record →
The site contributes to the well-attested pattern of dispersed, native-tradition farming settlements on the Cranborne Chase and surrounding downs, which supplied grain and livestock to regional centres such as Durnovaria (Dorchester) and Vindocladia (Badbury). Its juxtaposition with prehistoric barrows reflects the common Romano-British practice of inhabiting and reusing long-established ceremonial landscapes.
The settlement is known principally from earthworks and surface remains rather than excavation, typically comprising platforms, enclosure banks, and associated field systems ("Celtic" fields) visible on the downland surface. No detailed excavation record is available for this specific site, and finds are largely limited to surface scatters of Romano-British pottery characteristic of the Durotrigian ceramic tradition, including black-burnished ware.
This is a Romano-British settlement situated on the chalk downland of Blandford Race Down in Dorset, occupying a position alongside two earlier Bronze Age bowl barrows. It is recorded in the Pleiades gazetteer of ancient places as a settlement site from the Roman period in Britain.
Romano-British settlement and two bowl barrows on Blandford Race Down 450m south east of Telegraph Clump 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 Two Late Iron Age or Romano-British enclosed settlements with part of an associated field system 420m NNW of South Farm (2 km), Tarrant Hinton (2 km), Roman villa on Little Barton Hill (2.7 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 Romano-British settlement and two bowl barrows on Blandford Race Down 450m south east of Telegraph Clump