EDO4143 - Town Walls, Colliton Park, Dorchester; evaluation Trench B

An archaeological evaluation by means of trench excavation carried out in advance of proposed repairs to the town walls at Colliton Park, Dorchester was undertaken by AC archaeology during March 2001. Five trenches were excavated, three (A-C) on the south side of the north wall of Colliton Park and two (D-E) on the north side of the wall. Trench B was 2m long and located south of the town wall and NW of the Roman Town House. It was excavated to a maximum depth of 1.2m. The trench was excavated to the top of the Roman ramparts, which appeared to be level at this point, possibly as a result of post medieval truncation. Two distinct layers were separated and cut by a post-medieval E-W aligned ditch, one layer was a sandy clay and the other a chalk lump layer, their startigraphic relationship to eachother was not seen. No artefacts were recovered from these layers. Above these intact Roman layers lay up to 1.2m of post-medieval soils.