Archaeological galleries at Dorset County Museum before 2015

Dorset County Museum archaeological galleries before 2015

Warning: this is OBSOLETE. This describes the galleries as they were before the year 2015. When they reopened after the 2015 refurbishment the layout was quite different.

Plan (opens in a new window if possible) JP 2005.

The (patchy) description below assumes that the visitor enters by way of the back stairs, and goes around the galleries clockwise, all the exhibits being on the left except those marked (Right). Displays are numbered in sequence; the secondary numbers in (parentheses) are the display numbers used in Harte and Goodyer 1986.

0 Finds processing (begun 2003 Jan.)

1 (Right) diorama of Iron Age landscape (with modern ploughman)

2 English Heritage video-recording about Maiden Castle including interview with Sir Mortimer Wheeler; also, formerly, a replica of the Carinus tombstone but this was moved 2002 Jan. to the balcony of the main hall

3 (2.1) Conservation methods, including mosaic roundel of a sea-god from Hemsworth; also a piece of guilloche border from Dorchester Prison

4 (2.2-4) large corner display of various items, including mortar labelled 0-231-1 and Wool 1988 tombstone; also two pillar bases, one with modern ironwork in top, Colliton Park; carved stone face with "headdress", Colliton Park, illus. Goodyer B 5; worked stone, Poundbury, B 3, 4, 6; stone roofing, Poundbury, B 8.
Other items which may be present, not yet identified by JP, but illus. by Goodyer: two pieces of stone moulding from pillars, Colliton Park, T 18, 19; worked stone, Poundbury, T 20; stone altar, Colliton Park, T 21.

5 table cabinet: Portable Antiquities Scheme

6 (3.1-2) (Right) Mesolithic and Palaeolithic

7 (cabinet now moved to position 0 above)

8 Neolithic, Maiden Castle, finds incl. burial of 2 small children

9 Neolithic loomweights, axes, hammers etc.

10 Hambledon causewayed camp

11 long barrows (with copy of Pitt-Rivers' Cranborne Chase Vol 4)

12 Maumbury; antler pick, etc.

13 Mount Pleasant henge, Neolithic

14 Bronze Age Mount Pleasant; Conquer Barrow; backs onto 13

15 Bronze Age stone circles; Beaker pottery, saddle quern

16 Bronze Age farming

17 Bronze Age exchange, including Chickerell gold neckrings

18 Bronze Age metalwork, with palstaves, etc.

19 Bronze Age: Wessex Culture objects

20 Bronze Age pottery including Deverel-Rimbury

21 Bronze Age Maiden Castle

22 Iron Age Maiden Castle

23 Iron Age brooches and other small metal objects, oven, and burrstone pestle, from Maiden Castle

24 dog skeleton, Maiden Castle

25 Iron Age Dorset (back view of 23)

26 Iron Age coins and currency bars

27 Iron Age religion: stone heads, and pottery

28 Iron Age daily life: mirror fragment, BIG stone mortarium and spherical pounder

[EXIT here]

29 Portesham Iron Age mirror burial

30 Iron Age Gussage All Saints

31 Bulbury, iron age fort, smith's hoard found 1881, misc. ironwork of various ages

32 (9.7) Whitcombe `warrior' (Iron Age and Romano-British site)

33 (10.1) Iron Age pots and artefacts with some Roman arrowheads, and other small metal objects including an earscoop

34 (10.2) Maiden Castle war cemetery; 2 skeletons, one with ballista bolt embedded

35 (11.1) legionary dagger, spearhead, buckle, etc; bone sword-hilt (removed for conservation)

36 (11.2) amphorae; key, jug, large bronze bowl

36+ (11.2) Roman coopered costrel, bronze bowl. Italian jug

37 (11.3) left: Black Burnished and other Romano-British pottery

37 (11.4) right: Stone finds mostly from Norden: (a) odd boat-shaped Burr mortar; (b) PM mortar part-shaped but broken in making; (c) PM mortar, 3/4+ remaining but rim chipped off all round; (d) sawn fragment of PM. Also objects of shale, other worked stone, and tesserae, perhaps of Kimmeridge cementstone.

38 (11.5-6) Durnovaria, including Prideaux mortar 1912-28-1 (number written on, as is `CS Prideaux' and `Dorchester', 2 lugs left); another mortar from Dorchester, 2 lugs, 5/8 left, may perhaps be the Dorchester 1886 Mortar, unmarked according to Harte and Goodyer; both about 200mm diam. Also Colliton Park shale table leg, small metal objects, 2cm stone stamp (not PL). To the left of this case is a limestone column, from Colliton Park according to Harte and Goodyer's gallery catalogue.

39 Mosaic fragment from 50 South St, Dorchester. To the right is a limestone column (not apparently Purbeck); according to Harte and Goodyer's gallery catalogue from Preston, but Bill Putnam and Maureen Putnam (pers. comm.) recall excavating it at Dewlish. Pitt-Rivers excavation at Iwerne Minster 1897 mentioned.

40 (11.7) Purbeck Burr mortar from Portland; shale spindlewhorls; whetstones from Dewlish (not PL), etc.

40+ (11.8) Whitcombe rider; shale tile 150mm square from Jordan Hill

41 (11.9-10) Roman religion. pottery; Ham Stone roof finial from Dewlish; carved "phallic" stone figure from Symondsbury (RB, smooth grey stone with weak calcite veins, acc.no. 1936.42.1); Kingston Barn altar; lamps and other small objects; knife from Poundbury

42 (13.1, 14.1-2) Maiden Castle long mound burial; chalk idol from Maiden Castle

43 (12.1-2) Roman articles; rooftiles, coins, keys, etc.