Monument record MDO18487 - Poundbury Post-Roman Structure PR4

Post-Roman Structure PR4 was discovered in the southeast part of Late Roman enclosure 3, during the 1966-79 excavations at Poundbury, Dorchester. It lay immediately south of Late Roman mausoleum R8. PR4 comprised a straight trench forming the western side and a polygonal trench forming the rest of the structure, with gaps to the north and south. This building has an unusual, apsidal, form and comparatively small area. It may have served a non-domestic, perhaps religious, purpose. Structure PR4 was assigned to the latest phase of post-Roman settlement on the site.

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 report and archive (1)(2). 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 (3). Structure PR4 was located immediately northeast of PR3b and south of the Late Roman mausoleum R8. Its form is difficult to define and appears to be a rather unusual structure. It comprised a straight flat-bottomed trench, levelled into the slope of the hillside, which formed the western side. The rest of the structure is uncertain, but it is assumed to comprise a polygonal trench, also levelled into the hillside, to the east with gaps to the north and south. This would produce a building of small size of unusual apsidal form. The structure may have had a paved doorway on its north side. It has been suggested that this building may have served a non-domestic purpose, perhaps an isolated timber screen or exedra (2), or some unusual form of Late Roman mausoleum or post-Roman memorial (3). One notable find from the structure was a column capital reused as a basin, an object of potential liturgical use (4). A number of large postholes were found in the area of PR4, perhaps indicating that the slot structure replaced an earlier post-built structure (3). Structure PR4 was originally was assigned to phase VB (1). In a later reappraisal of the post-Roman settlements, it was assigned to the phase 3 post-Roman settlement, on the basis of the slot structure being more akin to other buildings from this phase

Record last edited

Aug 3 2010 5:33PM