Monument record MDO18483 - Poundbury Post-Roman grave 512

Post-Roman Grave 512 was discovered during the 1966-79 excavations at Poundbury, Dorchester. It was found in a shallow grave cut into the fill of the ditch of the post-Roman enclosure PR5. The grave was badly disturbed and only fragments of bone survived, but the burial was apparently aligned W-E. Three limestone slabs were found in the grave. It was one of three burials from the site that can be securely ascribed to the post-Roman period. It was later than Enclosure PR5, which was assigned to phase 2 of the post-Roman settlement. This settlement was characterised by a series of small buildings surrounded by small enclosures, which may represent individual cells for a religious (possibly female) community established on the site of the late Roman cemetery.

Found during the excavations directed by Christopher Sparey Green, for the Dorchester Excavation Committee, between 1966 and 1979 during development of the Grove Trading Estate on the eastern slopes of Poundbury Camp, Dorchester (1). The numbers in square brackets below refer to the context and feature numbers used in the published excavation reports and archive (1)(2)(3). Further refinement of the post-Roman settlement sequence has been undertaken by Christopher Sparey Green since the initial publication of the site and this has been taken into account in the following description (4) (5).

Post Roman grave 512 was one of three burials that can be securely ascribed to the post-Roman period at Poundbury (2). The shallow grave was badly disturbed. It was cut into the ditch fills on the southern side of post-Roman enclosure PR5. Only fragments of bone survived in the grave. The inhumation was apparently oriented W-E (2). Three limestone slabs were found in the grave.

Post-Roman enclosure PR5 was originally included in phase VB in the published monograph (1). A subsequent review of the post-Roman evidence has placed it in the post-Roman phase 2 settlement (3). Phase 2 of the settlement is distinguished by the appearance of small terraced or sunken-floored buildings of post and wattle construction, each surrounded by irregular ditched enclosures (PR5-10 and PR13) (3). Christopher Sparey-Green has recently suggested that this settlement phase of sunken dwellings within small enclosures represent individual cells for a religious (possibly female) community established on the site of the late Roman cemetery (4). Grave 512 must belong to a late stage in the phase 2 or phase 3 activity on stratigraphic grounds.

<1> Sparey Green, C, 1987, Excavations at Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset 1966-1982. Volume 1: The Settlements (Monograph). SDO9630.

<2> Farwell, D E and Molleson, T I, 1993, Excavations at Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset 1966-1980. Volume II: The Cemeteries (Monograph). SDO9538.

<3> Sparey Green, C, 1966-1979, Poundbury, Grove Trading Estate, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO10096.

<4> Sparey Green, C J, 1996, Poundbury, Dorset: settlement and economy in the Late and post-Roman Dorchester (Article in monograph). SDO10040.

<5> Sparey Green, C J, Living amongst the dead: From Roman cemetery to post-Roman monastic settlement at Poundbury (Article in monograph). SDO10041.

Record last edited

Apr 18 2007 2:23AM