Director - Susann Palmer
Asst. Director - Myfanwy Stewart
Secretary - Martin Blundell
Treasurer - Rod Wild

Activities during 1999

Programme for 2000

Grove Excavations

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Directors Report November 1999

Resume of Past Activities

At the end of a century - at the end of a millennium - it is appropriate that we look backwards as well as forwards as a Group which is interested in the past but also has the stated objective of preserving the knowledge, and at least some of the material remains, of that past for the future. That is what archaeology is about and that is what creates a continuity between past and future. That is the element which can be seen to underlie the concept of the passing of centuries and millennia.

Since the early 1960's the knowledge of Portland's past has taken great strides forward with the beginning of systematic research by a few individuals. Field walking and documentary research resulted in details being entered on a large-scale map of the Island and a Card Index of known finds and published and unpublished records was started. This was soon followed by a large-scale excavation of a Mesolithic site on two fields (Site l) next to the Old Lower Lighthouse (Bird Observatory). After the discovery of large quantities of artefacts and shell midden debris on Field 2154 east of the stream of Culver Well, the largest excavations to-date on the Island commenced in 1967. Both these excavations involved many people from all over England and also from other countries Scandinavia, France, Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, Japan, America, Australia, South Africa and North Africa. Individual visitors and groups from all over the world visited the sites and the Director of the digs gave lectures about Portland at numerous conferences in England and abroad. Portland was boldly on the archaeological map! We were interested in all periods - the earliest prehistory, Iron Age, Roman, medieval, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Victorian and the history of the quarrying and usage of Portland stone.

The dig on the Culverwell Mesolithic Habitation site (as it became known) continued over the next thirty years, with excavation work for three to one week every August during that time. Throughout that time the Director kept in mind the hope of one day being able to preserve at least part of this unique site for posterity in such a way that it would attract interest from academics, educationalists, public - adults as well as children- in such a way that it would benefit Portland. In the late 1980's it became evident that enough information had been gleaned from the site to enable a thorough and valid assessment to be made of the nature and significance of the site. The main significance was: Mesolithic people were not just aimless beach combers and wanderers but sometimes, as on Portland, had actually planned . their living sites and may have sometimes occupied them in at least a semi-sedentary manner; they were, indeed, the first Portlanders and the first people to use Portland limestone in the construction of their living sites.

After 1997 no new trenches were opened on the site and the Director with members of A.P.A. began to plan for the future of the site. This was an uphill. struggle and at times it did not seem likely that any part of the site would be preserved but that it would just have to be backfilled and, in time, would have been forgotten about. In 1998 all on site work came to an end and concerted efforts were made to obtain support for a Culverwell Management Plan.