Monument record MDO42347 - Roman burial, Corporation Yard, Poundbury Road, Dorchester

A burial of Roman date found in 1931. The burial was extended and lying east-west with the head at the eastern end. Objects found with the skeleton included a twisted bronze armlet and nails with traces of wood adhering to them, though to be the remains of a coffin.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 582, no. 223a (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(223) WEST GATE AREA (a) Inhumation found in the Corporation Yard, Poundbury Road, in 1931 (68819069). The skeleton was extended E. to W. (head E.), 3½ ft. below surface, lying without obvious signs of a grave in a wide ditch probably running N. to S., possibly the Aqueduct (227a) or a branch from it. The right arm, across the breast, had an armlet (1901.4.1) of 3-ply twisted bronze wire with soldered hook terminals, 4 ins. above the wrist. Five nails recovered with wood adhering suggested a coffin, and the burial may be accepted as a regular one, almost certainly later than the ditch filling. (O. C. Vidler, letter, 9 May 1931, R.C.H.M. records; Dorset Procs. LIV (1932), XXIX–XXX; information of location from Mr. W. Yard, 1951.)’

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:40PM