EDO7833 - Dorset County Museum, High West Street, Dorchester; excavation 2021

Context One excavated an area of approximately 450 square metres in advance of demolition part of the museum and building of an extension as part of refurbishment of the museum. A tracket machine equipped with a toothless buck when being used to remove topsoil until archaeological features were encounted. The soil was examined for the retrieval of artefact and was scanned with a metal detector. A notable feature recorded during the excavation was Roman road; this was a substantial road likely to be one of the major roads within the Roman town. A wide range of finds were recovered that comprised of Romano-British (and later) pottery, glass, ceramic building materials, metal object, painted plaster, lithic small finds and worked bone objects. There were also a small assesmblage of human remains, largely neonatal. Of the pottery, 2977 sherds of pottery were recovered and all apart from 27 pieces of medieval to post-medieval date, were of Romano-British era. Human remains were recovered from several context and include a disarticulated adult human bone from post-medieval layer and disarticulated perinatal remains were recognised in post-excavation. The excavation of the Site has added considerable evidence and understanding to the development and use of the centre of the Roman town of Dorchester. It has not found a great deal of information about medieval use of the area, but this is to be expected due to the truncation of deposits by the large number of post medieval buildings which were present on this site.