Monument record MWX377 - Cemetery, Verne Common Road, Fortuneswell, Portland

Six Roman inhumation burials were found in 1950 during the laying of water mains in Verne Common Road. Two burials were in cists, one in a stone sarcophagus, one was coffined in wood and two others were damaged. Dishes and jars were found with the burials. In 1970 further work revealed a stone coffin and a cist indicating the site of a cemetery

Six apparently adult inhumations were found when laying water-mains in 1950 in Verne Common Road (formerly Zigzag Road). Two had been compressed into small cists one of which was accompanied by a coarse ware jar and dish (SY 68747380) and the other had one coarse ware dish (stolen). A third cist (SY 68727377) had nails indicating a wooden coffin. The fourth and fifth graves (SY 68487366) were damaged and of doubtful orientation. The northern-most of these two was in a full length cist with a Trajanic Samian dish and a coarse ware jar, and the other was in an unlined grave also accompanied by dishes and a jar. A sixth burial (SY 68517377) was in a diagonally tooled Portland stone sarcophagus, apparently without grave goods. (1) "SY 68597373. This was the site of one stone coffin containing human bones at a depth of about 5ft. I know nothing about the site of the other burials". (2) SY 68697379. Site clearance for the building of flats in Verne Common Road in July 1970 uncovered the end of a stone coffin along with the end of a stone cist. The cist contained an inhumation burial and two Romano-British pots. The skeleton had been destroyed by the burial of the coffin at a later date. The coffin appeared to have been disturbed before and no other grave goods have been found. "There were signs of other graves in the surrounding soil, and the site is presumably a cemetery for a settlement in Chesil Cove". (3)

Record last edited

Aug 17 2023 9:34AM