Monument record MDO18055 - Maiden Castle Road grave 02318

A 4th century AD grave oriented N-S, within the Maiden Castle Road Roman cemetery. It contained an extended inhumation of a female aged 18-20, with the head to the south, buried in a wooden coffin. There was a copper alloy bracelet on left arm/wrist and a copper alloy finger ring with glass intaglio on the right hand. A large iron nail with copper alloy covered head was found by left hip. Hobnails were found by the feet.

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 [02318] was aligned N-S within the cemetery, to the close to grave [02215] and cut the eastern side of grave [02367]. It also cut the edge of the northern ditch [02237] of the ditched trackway. It contained an extended inhumation of a female aged 18-20, with head to south. Iron coffin nails attest to the former presence of a wooden coffin. A copper alloy bracelet was found on the left arm/wrist and a copper alloy finger ring with glass intaglio was found on the right hand. A large iron nail with a copper alloy covered head was found beside left hip. 51 hobnails were found by the feet.

No dating evidence was recovered from this grave, which has been dated to the 4th century AD on the basis of its association with other burials of this date within the cemetery.

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 8:17PM