SDO9885 - 'Roman Britain in 1975: Southern Counties' Britannia

Brief catalogue of archaeological works carried out on Roman sites in Britain during 1975. This includes the following summaries for sites in Dorchester (on pages 361-2), reproduced here in full. (i) At H M Prison (SY691909) excavation exposed a probably Flavian pit which post-dated a large chalk-filled slot. (ii) At the Plume of Feathers (SY691906) a water-pipe with iron collars was found running east-west, presumably distributing water from the aqueduct. A street was also found; it apparently continued the alignment of one found west of the County Hospital in 1963. p361. At Poundbury (SY685911), in the area of the late Roman Christian cemetery, 155 graves were excavated and in the burial ground of the adjacent settlement another three, bringing the total for the two cemeteries to 960. All but 16 of the burials in the main cemetery were simple inhumations orientated to the W, with nails from a coffin or bier only. Nine burials had grave-goods. Four had coins of the mid to late fourth century, and four had jewellery – one with a bone and seven bronze bracelets, a glass-bead necklace and bone comb. The ninth had a bone-handled iron knife similar to the Lankhills and Wye examples. In seven burials the bodies had received special treatment: three had stout coffins with iron braces, and at least two coffins were packed with plaster. In two coffins of this group, a flat-headed stud had been fitted at the head end, presumably to ensure correct alignment. Two more lead-lined coffins were found: one was of a child, the other coffin was fitted with iron corner-fitted braces, and contained an adult, packed in plaster which preserved locks of brown hair. The three burials to the east were aligned N-S; tow had nailed footwear and the other lay in a tiled cist. These burials adjoined a building, encroached upon by the main cemetery, which lay south of that dug in 1972. The settlement is thus seen to comprise two groups of simple rectangular dwellings or work buildings, each ranged around three sides of a courtyard open on the east, downhill side, Further work on site C to the SW of the main cemetery, produced little trace of Roman but more Neolithic and Bronze Age features.