Flagstones Enclosure

Flagstones is a late Neolithic interrupted ditch enclosure (similar to a causewayed enclosure) on the outskirts of Dorchester, Dorset, England [1]. It derives its name from having been discovered beneath the site of the demolished Flagstones House [1]. Half of it was excavated in the 1980s when the Dorchester by-pass was built; the rest of it still exists under the grounds of Max Gate, author and architect Thomas Hardy's former house [1]. The part of the enclosure in the grounds of Flagstones House was excavated by Wessex Archaeology [1]. The enclosure comprised a circular ring of unevenly spaced pits constructed in the late 4th millennium BC [1]. The chalk walls of some of the pit/ditch segments featured engraved designs, probably cut with flint [1]. An adult cremation and two child inhumations were found at the bottom of ditch sections, each beneath a slab of sandstone or sarsen [1].