Monument record MDO18224 - Cooper's Cookers, Grove Trading Estate; Roman burial, Grave 314

Part of a skull within the eastern end of a rectangular grave cut was seen during a watching brief at Cooper's Cookers, Grove Trading Estate, Dorchester during a watching brief undertaken by Terrain Archaeology in 2002. Only a very small part of the grave and inhumation burial was found, but the burial appeared to be an extended supine inhumation oriented E-W with the head to the east. No dating evidence was recovered, but the large number of Roman burials which have been found in the vicinity suggest that this burial also dates to the Roman period.

A small part of an inhumation burial was recorded during a watching brief at Cooper's Cookers, Grove Trading Estate, Dorchester during a watching brief undertaken by Terrain Archaeology in 2002 (1) (2). The numbers in square brackets refer to context numbers quoted in the report (2).

The eastern end of a rectangular grave cut [314] cut into the natural chalk was exposed in the western side of Trench 3. Only a very small part of the grave and inhumation burial was found, but the burial appeared to be an extended supine inhumation oriented E-W with the head to the east. No dating evidence was recovered, but the large number of Roman burials which have been previously found in the vicinity (4) suggest that this burial also dates to the Roman period.

This burial lay about 7.25m south of possible Roman grave [320].

<1> Bellamy, P S, 2003, Dorchester, Cooper's Wholesale, The Grove. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Society, 164 (Article in serial). SDO9505.

<2> Tatler, S, Bellamy, P, and Montague, R, 2002, Units 1-3, Cooper’s Cookers, Grove Trading Estate, Dorchester, Dorset: Archaeological Observations and Recording (Unpublished document). SDO9506.

<3> Farwell, D E, 1997, Coopers Wholesale, Grove Trading Estate, Dorchester: Preliminary Archaeological Desk-based Assessment (Unpublished document). SDO9504.

<4> Farwell, D E and Molleson, T I, 1993, Excavations at Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset 1966-1980. Volume II: The Cemeteries (Monograph). SDO9538.

Record last edited

May 2 2012 4:01AM