Talk
A persistent place: a new chronology for Neolithic Dorchester
FULLY BOOKED
The area underneath and around the town of Dorchester was an important place for Neolithic people, who built a variety of monuments here over a period of 2000 years. From the early Neolithic causewayed enclosure at Maiden Castle and middle Neolithic sites like the Alington Avenue long barrow and the 100m enclosure known as Flagstones to late Neolithic constructions like Mount Pleasant ‘mega-henge’ and Greyhound Yard’s 380m-wide palisaded enclosure, these sites form a rich and wide-ranging ceremonial landscape spanning hundreds of years.
Recent work as part of Susan Greaney’s PhD has obtained new radiocarbon dates for the major monuments in this complex, enabling a new and detailed chronology for the area to be constructed. This talk will present these results, and discuss their implications for how we understand changes in beliefs, burials and gatherings during the Neolithic period, including how these people may have viewed older monuments. It will also present insights that this new chronology provides into fundamental questions about what happened at the start of the Bronze Age.
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What's On
18 February - 22 June 2023
The Art of Seeing: An exhibition of photographs by Dorchester Camera Club
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Find out more21 March 2023, 11:00am - 12:00pm
Archaeology Highlights Tour
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Find out more22 March - 25 June 2023
ARTIST ROOMS: Louise Bourgeois
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Find out more22 March 2023, 7:30pm
Cordiera Piano Trio
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Find out more23 March 2023, 5:00pm - 6:30pm
FREE | Museum After Hours
Join us for an opportunity to explore the Museum at this FREE late opening.
Find out more23 March 2023, 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Joanna Quinn in conversation with Tracy Chevalier
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Find out more24 March 2023, 6:00pm - 9:00pm
This is Now
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Find out more28 March 2023, 11:00am - 12:00noon
Dorset Museum Highlights Tour
Explore 250 million years of Dorset’s history in this volunteer-led highlights tour of Dorset Museum. Discover Roman mosaics, fossils from the Jurassic Coast, Thomas Hardy manuscripts and the sculptures of Elisabeth Frink – and plenty more along the way.
Find out more1 April 2023, 10:00am to 4:30pm
One day life painting pose
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