Monument record MDO18046 - Maiden Castle Road grave 02228

A 4th century AD grave oriented E-W, within the Maiden Castle Road Roman cemetery. It contained the crouched inhumation of an adult female, with the head to the west. The burial was accompanied by a Black Burnished Ware Type 10 beaker and a possible Oxfordshire ware vessel (lost) adjacent to the head

Found during the excavations to the north of Maiden Castle Road undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in 1987 in advance of the Dorchester By-pass construction. The following description is abstracted from the final published report on the site (1). The numbers in square brackets refer to context numbers quoted in the report.

Rectangular grave cut aligned E-W on the line of the northern limit of the cemetery, just to the east of grave [02217] and its eastern side was cut by grave [02230]. It contained a crouched inhumation of an adult female with head to west, accompanied by a Black Burnished Ware Type 10 beaker and a possible Oxfordshire ware vessel (lost) adjacent to the head. 27 hobnails were recovered from this grave. The grave fill also contained the rim of a dropped flange bowl dating to the 3rd-5th century AD.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 983909 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Wessex Archaeology, 1987, Dorchester By-pass (Excavation archive). SDO9385.

Woodward, P J and Smith, R J C, 1987, Survey and excavation along the route of the Southern Dorchester By-pass, 1986-1987 – an interim note, 79-89 (Article in serial). SDO9381.

<1> Smith, R J C et al, 1997, Excavations along the Route of the Dorchester By-pass, Dorset, 1986-8, 56-70 (Monograph). SDO9379.

Record last edited

Dec 6 2023 8:11PM