Combe Ditch, linear dyke

Summary

Part of the prehistoric linear boundary called Combe or Combs Ditch.

Reasons for Designation

Linear boundaries are substantial earthwork features comprising single or multiple ditches and banks which may extend over distances which vary from less than 1km to over 10km. They survive as earthworks or as linear features visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs or as a combination of both. The evidence of excavation and study of associated monuments demonstrate that their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although they may have been reused later. The scale of many linear boundaries has been taken to indicate that they were constructed by large social groups and were used to mark important boundaries in the landscape; their impressive scale displaying the corporate prestige of their builders. They would have been powerful symbols, often with religious associations, used to define and order the territorial holdings of those groups who constructed them. The adaptive re-use of the part of the prehistoric linear boundary called Combs Ditch indicates its continued significance as a boundary feature over a considerable period of time. It will contain archaeological and environmental evidence relating to its construction, development, adaptive re-use, alterations in construction techniques, social organisation of the builders and overall landscape context.

History

See Details.

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 17 February 2016. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

This monument, which falls into four separate areas, includes a prehistoric linear boundary which was adaptively re-used during the Late Roman and early medieval periods and is situated on the summit of a broad ridge through undulating down land between the River Stour and South Winterborne. The boundary survives differentially through its considerable length as a bank with its associated ditch which in places also has a berm and counterscarp bank. The bank varies in width from 5.4m up to 8.5m and from 0.4m up to 1.3m high and the ditch is from 4.8m up to 8.5m wide and averages 0.9m deep. Excavations in 1965 indicated the linear boundary had its origins as an Iron Age work associated with agricultural activities which became more heavily defensive during the late Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods with the addition of more pronounced earthworks.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

DO 764

Legacy System:

RSM - OCN

Sources

Other
PastScape 205716

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