SDO9927 - 'Roman Britain in 1978: 1. Sites explored' Britannia

Brief catalogue of archaeological works carried out on Roman sites in Britain during 1978. This includes the following summaries for sites in Dorchester (on pages 327), reproduced here in full. (3) Dorchester (Durnovaria, SY694905): excavation in advance of proposed development examined some 1800 m2 of the last undisturbed area within the Roman town. The N and S boundaries of a large public bath-house were found, those to the E and W being beyond the excavation. The first bath-house may have been erected c. 75-100, and the area fell into disuse probably c. 320-260. The main alignment of the building was E-W, defined by a bath (10) c. 10 m wide and approaching 20 m long, with a large heated room to W which had an apsidal plunge-bath at its S end. Besides these there were two systems of heated rooms and a separate building to the S. The earliest system comprised two rectangular heated rooms on the S side of the bath (10), together with a circular laconicum at the SE corner of (10) and a rectangular cold plunge to N of the laconicum. The stoking area lay S of the laconicum. To the E of the laconicum complex was a second system consisting of a series of four heated rooms and a cold-room to the E of these. Numerous and complex changes were made during the life of this small, late, heated plunge-bath and boiler. To the SW of the two complexes already mentioned, a large rectangular room with channelled hypocaust (the rest of the heated rooms had pilae) had been added at a late date. It was fired from a stoking room in the E. This building destroyed the stoking-area of the laconicum which as a result became unheated; the two heated rooms to the W of the latter received a new stoking room at their W end. To the S of the site was a large area of re-deposited chalk removed in digging the foundations of the buildings. The area N of the main E-W group of buildings was perhaps a palaestra. Work for the Central Excavation Unit of the Department of the Environment was directed by Mr D. Batchelor. Brief report given in Anon., Roman Town Baths; Open Days 23 & 24 June, 1978, Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Society.