Description

This report summarises the results of all the archaeological investigations to date carried out at Home Field, Down Farm, Sixpenny Handley, Dorset (NGR. ST 9980 1461), but concentrates on the results of the 2005 fieldwork. It presents the results of a 2 week excavation run as a practical archaeology course for the general public by Wessex Archaeology. It also summarises the results of environmental analyses of samples taken during Martin Green’s (1985/6, 1995) and Wessex Archaeology’s (2004) earlier work on the Site.
This was the second season of research excavation carried out on the site and comprised three small areas which are extensions to the earlier excavation areas. The excavation occurred between 5th – 20th September 2005. The results from the archaeological investigations at Home Field have highlighted the major period of activity being from the Late Bronze Age into the Middle Iron Age (11th - 7th to 5th - 3rd centuries BC). A small quantity of Beaker period (2600 – 1800 BC) and Romano- British (AD 43 – 410) pottery from the excavations indicates small-scale activity of these dates in the area, though the nature of the activity is difficult to ascertain.