Monument record MDO18246 - Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester; Infant burial 1484

The disturbed remains of an infant burial in a shallow grave along the line of one of the walls of the early Roman post-built rectangular building 1604 was found in Trench 4, during the 1989 excavations at Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester. This burial was one of four infant burials associated with this building and was probably a foundation deposit.

Found during the excavations carried out by Wessex Archaeology in 1989 in the proposed Wessex Court retail development area between Charles Street, Acland Road, and South Walks, Dorchester (1) (2) (3) (4). The numbers in square brackets below are context and feature numbers used in the report and archive (1) (4).

Infant burial 1484 lay above gully [1420] of timber building 1604 and was sealed by consolidation deposits associated with the construction of Building 1605. It lay close to three other infant burials [1414, 1416, 1418] also associated with building 1604. The inhumation was of a neonate laid on its left side in a crouched position with the head to the SE, in a roughly circular grave 0.35m across and 0.05m deep.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 1431039 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<1> Davies, S M and Farwell, D, 1989, Excavations at Charles Street (Wessex Court), Dorchester: Interim report on Stage 1, 25th May-3rd July and Stage 2, 25th July-12th September 1989 (Unpublished document). SDO9408.

<2> Adam, N J, Butterworth, C A, Davies, S M, and Farwell, D E, 1992, Excavations at Wessex Court , Charles Street, Dorchester, Dorset, 1989 (Unpublished document). SDO9409.

<3> Davies, S M and Farwell, D E, 1989, 'Charles Street, Dorchester, Wessex Court Development', Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO9414.

<4> Wessex Archaeology, 1989-1990, Wessex Court, Charles Street, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO9878.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:28PM