News
Home of Hillforts and Henges
June 22, 2022
Home of Hillforts and Henges is an exciting new event from 21st to 31st July that will celebrate Dorchester’s neolithic and iron age landscape, rich in earthworks and the people that have lived here for over 6,000 years.
The event is part of the National CBA Festival of Archaeology 2022 and activities will take place at multiple locations across the town. It will launch at Dorset Museum with a special open evening and a talk on the Ridgeway Vikings. An action-packed programme will include a series of lectures at Dorset Museum and a new archaeological dig at National Trust’s Max Gate with Meet the Archaeologist sessions. There will be guided walks over the landscape (including Maiden Castle), antiquities handling and family crafts at Dorset Museum at weekends.
The event concludes with an epic day of discovery and fun at Maumbury Rings with Hengefest on Sunday, 31st July where there will be animal handling, bushcraft, storytelling, nature crafts, music, performers and other activities that celebrate the sacred history of the space and its vibrant history.
The open countryside around Dorchester contains many ancient scheduled monuments and falls within the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (DAONB). As well as demonstrating pride in our ancient heritage, Home of Hillforts & Henges aims to promote wellbeing and good mental health through appreciation and enjoyment of local nature.
Dorchester Town Council Tourism Development Officer, Matilda Manley, said: “Dorchester is a very special place, not many towns can boast two iron age hillforts and three neolithic henges! These are fantastic features of our town that we should be celebrating, and it is great that we are now doing that. Maiden Castle is one of the biggest hillforts in Europe! Maumbury Rings has such an amazing history, starting as a sacred henge and then being adopted by Romans for use as an amphitheatre. It is a great space that is still used and loved. It is brilliant to be celebrating its history and importance to the town today”
With grateful thanks to our headline sponsors, Kingston Maurward and Dorchester Town Council.
Festival of Archaeology 2022
21 July 2022, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
The Ridgeway Vikings: New research and findings | Heather Tamminen
Using modern digital technology, the sharp force of trauma on these individuals has been reappraised to see what new information can be learned. Bournemouth University’s Heather Tamminen will show how this technology has been able to refine the interpretations of the events that occurred and have added to the narrative of dramatic events that took place on the Ridgeway ten centuries ago.
Find out more22 July 2022, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
The Extraordinary Prehistoric Landscape Under Your Feet And Up The Hills | Steve Wallis
In this talk Steve Wallis is to explore the prehistoric landscape of the Dorchester area, covering the changes over time and the different types of monuments and remains.
Find out more23 July 2022, 10:00am - 12noon
Viking Print Making Workshop
Learn how to make Viking inspired prints using lino cutting to create your name and initials in runic writing, all materials and tools provided. Participants will leave with a Runic initial keyring and a print of their name.
Find out more25 July 2022, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
The Magic and Myth of Watermeadows | Dr Kathy Stearne
The origins of water meadows are lost in medieval times. Surface water irrigation expanded in Wessex and throughout England from the sixteenth century and was a sustainable intensive integrated agricultural system until the twentieth century. This talk looks at the origins of water meadows in England.
Find out more26 July 2022, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
The Durotriges Project | Paul Cheetham
Of all the Iron Age tribes identified from pre-Roman Britain, the Durotriges are the most culturally distinct. Roughly occupying an area that equates with modern Dorset, together with significant parts of southern Wiltshire and south-eastern Somerset, the pottery, coinage, settlements and burial practices of the Durotriges clearly marks them out from their contemporary tribal neighbours the Atrebates, Belgae, Dumnonii and Dobunni.
Find out more27 July 2022, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
VIP Archaeology: From the Neolithic to the Medieval, the archaeology of the Dorset Visual Impact Provision | John Boothroyd
Working on behalf of National Grid on its Dorset Visual Impact Provision (VIP) just outside Dorchester, a team of more than 25 archaeologists spent almost two years excavating and recording a wealth of evidence for human activity dating back 6000 years.
Find out more28 July 2022, 7:00pm
‘Anciently a manor’: the medieval manor at Lower Putton Lane, Chickerell | Dr Clare Randall
Join Dr Clare Randall to find out more about the findings from excavations at Lower Putton Lane carried out by Context One Heritage and Archaeology during 2016–2017 revealed a significant part of a manorial settlement.
Find out more28 May – 30 October 2022
Take a fresh look at the Victorian novelist and poet, Thomas Hardy, in the stunning Wessex landscapes that shaped his view of the world. His story will be retold in exciting new ways by our museum collections, from period costumes to personal letters, art to archaeology.
Find out more17 June - 11 July 2022, 10:00am - 1:00pm
Hardy’s Wessex: Drawing on the ancient past
This six-week course led by artist Helen Garrett will take you on a creative journey through Thomas Hardy’s work, inspirations and Dorset Museum’s collections.
Find out more