Author Description

A three-acre settlement at Gussage All Saints, Dorset was completely excavated and most of the archaeological deposit removed so as to provide a basis for broader interpretations. Post-holes for buildings, numerous pits, gullies and internal enclosures provided evidence that the settlement was occupied throughout the second half of the first millennium CB, and evidence was recovered for its development, material culture, economy and population. Of particular interest is a collection of bronze-founder's debris, including broken investment moulds, which was found as a rubbish deposit. The excavation was a problem-orientated project within a rescue framework, designed to look back at Dr Gerhardt Bersu's excavation of the site of Little Woodbury, near Salisbury, in 1938 and 1939, which, although a partial excavation, had for many years provided the pattern for Iron Age economy in Southern Britain.