EDO4212 - Poundbury, Dorchester; excavations 1966 to 1980

Excavations took place annually between 1966 and 1976 and again in 1979. The controlled excavations were initiated as a result of casual discoveries in the locality in 1964 and 1965 and were complemented by fieldwork, including aerial surveillance and watching briefs on development sites. The excavations were in response to the increasing destruction of the site by industrial development on Grove Trading Estate. The excavations were published in a series of interim reports in the Dorset Proceedings, as well as in two monographs; one dedicated to the cemeteries, the other to the settlements. The excavations recovered the remains of over 1400 inhumations, mainly of late Roman date. Burials were arranged in a series of cemeteries which included a group of stone built mausolea. The earliest settlement evidence was a series of shallow storage pits and flint quarries which may represent a Neolithic settlement. A Bronze Age settlement then became established in the combe at the foot (east end) of the site. The earliest burial was a single Bronze Age crouched burial. Crouched burials were also asscociated with a Late Iron Age/ Early Romano-British settlement. Later, two cemeteries were established next to each other in the 3rd century AD, one pagan, the other Christian, at the back of two 3rd century buildings. The christian cemetery expanded throughout the 4th century to include several stone built mausolea with leaf-shaped stone slates on their rooves and internal painted wall plaster. The late Roman Christian cemetery covered much of the eastern slopes of Poundbury Camp and was an organised row grave cemetery with burials aligned W-E. A high proportion of the burials were coffined, some of which were lead lined and packed with gypsum. Grave goods were rare, but included 4th century coins and occasional dress items. The latest phase of the cemetery may have been during the 5th century when the mausolea had already started to collapse, these included simple graves lined with leaf-shaped stone tiles from the rooves of the mausolea. Focal burials may have provided the stimulus for the establishment of a large and significant post-Roman settlement comprising post-built structures that may represent an early Christian monastery. Domestic items and tools were recovered as well as environmental samples indicating an innovative and mixed agrarian economy. The settlement seems to have been deliberately shut down in the middle of the 7th century.