EDO3812 - 15 High East Street, Dorchester; Trial Pit 1

AC archaeology carried out an archaeological evaluation at 15 High East Street, Dorchester, in advance of the proposed demolition and redevelopment of a build at the rear of the property. The evaluation comprised the excavation of 2 trial pits 1.5 m square, to the rear of the property in April 1998. Trial pit 1 revealed evidence for three separate Romano-British opus signinum floor levels relating to at least two separate building plans spanning the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Above the latest floor, a thin layer of soil suggested abandonment prior to the subsequent rapid collapse of the buiding resulting in the deposition of a rubble demolition layer. This was sealed by a thick soil accumulation containing exclusively Romano-British artefacts, followed by early post-medieval infilling deposits and soil accumulation. A number of modern soils, service trenches and structures were also present. The Romano-British deposits were not bottomed, a silty clay soil lay below the earliest floor level at a depth of about two metres.