Ancient bones go on show at Weymouth Relief Road exhibition

Ancient bones from the site of the Weymouth Relief Road will be among the artefacts on display at an exhibition in the town.

For three days this month, the Weymouth Pavilion Ocean Room will be turning into an Aladdin's cave of archaeological treasure.

During the free event for local people, ancient bones, Iron Age pottery, shale jewellery and many other finds recovered from the site of the Weymouth Relief Road will be on display.

The exhibition opening hours are:

Sunday 21 March, 10am-5pm

Monday 22 March, 9am-8pm

Tuesday 23 March, 9am-8pm

Archaeologists from Dorset County Council and specialists from Oxford Archaeology will be on hand to discuss the finds and answer questions about the excavations.

Dorset County Council senior archaeologist Steve Wallis said:"Some people will be unaware of the scale of the archaeological work on the relief road.

"Before work started on the road, archaeologists investigated the Ridgeway Hill area between October and December 2008.

"This was followed by the discovery in spring 2009 of an Iron Age settlement on Southdown Ridge, south of Littlemoor, and then the unique mass burial pit on Ridgeway was uncovered last summer.

"The three sites are totally different to one another and hopefully residents will get a real flavour of the variety of finds by coming along to the exhibitions."

Oxford Archaeology project manager David Score said: "It's been a pleasure for us to work on the Weymouth Relief Road and we're looking forward to sharing our findings so far with Dorset residents.

"Two skeletons from the Ridgeway burial pit will be on display alongside Iron Age jewellery, pottery and remains from one of the other 100 burials discovered on the site."

Leader of Dorset County Council Angus Campbell said: "This is a truly exciting event for residents across Dorset to come and share in.

"It is not often that remarkable finds from across such a wide historic time period are displayed in a free event for the community."

Archaeology enthusiasts may also like to attend a Day School on Saturday 20 March.

For £12, attendees can learn about the role of the archaeologist on the site of the Weymouth Relief Road and find out more about three main excavation areas, with presentations by Oxford Archaeology, Wessex Archaeology and Dorset County Museum.

Event programmes, which include booking information, are available online at www.dorsetforyou.com/weymouthreliefroad, from County Hall, Dorset County Museum, the Timewalk Museum and Tourist Information Centres across the county area.