EDO4617 - Army Camp, Poundbury, Dorchester; excavation 1940

Three inhumations in stone sarcophagi were found within 100 yards of each other during the making of roads and hut foundations on the east slopes of Poundbury in the army camp NE of the railway cutting in Jan and March 1940. The first was found on the 5th Jan 1940 in digging hut foundations, the skeleton was broken up by workmen. The sarcophagus was of Portland Stone with ridged-roofed lid mended with iron cramps leaded into dowel holes. Another of Ham Hilll stone was found on the 11th Jan 1940 with a flat lid. It lay E-W in a chalk cut grave 4ft below the modern surface. The skeleton of a man 5ft 9ins tall, head to the E, was enlcosed in a packing of plaster except for the head and face. The hands were crossed over the lower body. Ring bolts and ornamental angle irons and nails with bits of wood preserved enabled a reconstruction of the oak coffin. The plaster retained the impression of a shroud in which the body had been wrapped. The sarcophagus and fittings are in the DCM. The third sarcophagus of Ham Hill stone with shallow flat lid, broken in two, was found inlaying a water main at the fire hydrant in the turning circle 60 yards from the entrance to the hillfort. It was aligned WNW-ESE, but the skeleton was fragmentary. The sarcophagus is now at the Roman Town House, Colliton Park. (1)