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 focuses in detail on the results of the 2006 fieldwork. It presents the results of a three week excavation run as a practical archaeology course for the general public by Wessex Archaeology. It also summarises the results of earlier work undertaken by Martin Green (1985/6, 1995) and Wessex Archaeology (2004 and 2005).
This was the third season of research excavation carried out on the site and comprised two small areas which are extensions to the earlier excavations. The excavation was carried out between 4th – 22nd September 2006. 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 previous excavations indicates small-scale activity of these dates in the area, though the nature of the activity is difficult to ascertain.