Monument record MDO8004 - Inhumation burials, Swanage Bay

Several inhumation burials were exposed in a cliff fall in Swanage Bay in 1877. Two stone cists were found containing some evidence for a wooden coffin. These burials are probably either Romano-British or post-Roman in date.

Swanage Bay. Inhumation burials were exposed in 1877 in a cliff fall about 1/2 mile N of Swanage. Of two covered and partly floored cists of stone slabs, about 3 ft apart at a depth of 18 ins, one about 2 1/2 ft long contained fragmentary bones of a child, the other, some 3 ft long, probably the same. Large nails in both graves, one with oak (?) fibres, suggested wooden coffins, perhaps of boards 2in thick. One cist contained one or two sherds of black ware. The remains were near the North Ledge, presumably the Tanville Ledges offshore near Highcliffe Road, New Swanage. Objects, untraced, were formerly in Mowlem Institute, Swanage. (Included under Roman Remains) (1)

Record last edited

Oct 18 2013 9:50AM