SDO9771 - 'Skeletons of Plague victims' Dorset County Chronicle

The finding or unearthing of something in Dorchester of Roman origin is of frequent occurrence, and Corporation workmen who are now engaged in extensive excavation work in the Borough Gardens have unearthed from 12 to 15 human skeletons which experts say date from the Roman period. All were more or less fragmentary, with here and there a whole skull, and a portion of jawbone contained several teeth in an excellent state of preservation. Some of the remains were little more than a foot below the surface of the ground, and others at a lower depth were in the chalk. There had been no attempt at orderly burial, and as a workman put it, “They seem to have been chucked in anyhow.” A theory put forward by a well known antiquary was that the interments might have taken place in the Middle Ages when the town was practically wiped out by plague, and that would account for no systematic plan of burial.It is recorded in history that the Romans invariably buried their dead outside the town walls which were contiguous with the walks, so that the Borough Gardens are some distance from the boundary. Up to the present the only other “finds” have been a small coin and fragments of ware, but members of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society who have visited the site are hoping that the excavation yet to be done may yield something of interest. Some years ago human skeletons were found nearby when the grass courts were laid down for lawn tennis.