Monument record MDO18440 - Poundbury Post-Roman Early Settlement Boundary

The earlier post-Roman enclosure was discovered during the 1966-79 excavations at Poundbury, Dorchester. It comprised a rectilinear enclosure defined by shallow ditches on the site of the main late Roman cemetery. It was on a similar alignment to the late Roman enclosures. It had a double ditch to the north and a possible entrance to the south, the western side was not exposed This enclosure surrounded the earliest post-Roman settlement on the site of the late Roman cemetery (which comprised buildings PR1a, PR2b, PR3a, PR15, PR16 and possibly PR14; pit groups ii-v; grain driers 1,2,3 & 5) and the early post-Roman settlement to the north of the cemetery (which comprised buildings PR11, PR12; pit groups vi-vii; grain drier 4).

Found during the excavations directed by Christopher Sparey Green, for the Dorchester Excavation Committee, between 1966 and 1979 during development of the Grove Trading Estate on the eastern slopes of Poundbury Camp, Dorchester (1). The numbers in square brackets below refer to the context and feature numbers used in the published excavation report and archive (1)(2). Further refinement of the post-Roman settlement sequence has been undertaken by Christopher Sparey Green since the initial publication of the site and this has been taken into account in the following description (3) (4).

The earliest phase of post-Roman enclosure comprised a large enclosure on the same alignment as the late Roman enclosures. Elements of the northern and eastern sides of the enclosure were defined, but the western side and most of the southern side lay beyond the excavated area and have not been satisfactorily defined. The enclosure was probably rectilinear and measured over 100m N-S and 60m E-W. The northern side is represented by two parallel boundaries [E475]/[E573]/[E616] & [E553] and by a single ditch [D165] on the east. On the south a short length of gully [E16] may have also formed part of the enclosure. On the east side, there was another parallel boundary ditch [C146]/[C286]/[G1138] about 30m east of the eastern boundary ditch [D165]. It is unclear whether this forms part of the enclosure or is the western side of another similar enclosure to the east, which lies largely beyond the area of excavation. The boundary ditches were shallow U-shaped gullies, normally only about 0.15m deep, perhaps suggesting the main element of the enclosure was a bank, fence or hedge. The entrance seems most likely to have been on the south side.

This phase of post-Roman enclosure was originally placed in phase VA (1). In a later reappraisal of the post-Roman settlements, this feature was assigned to phase 1 of the post-Roman settlement. There were two foci of settlement identified within this enclosure: to the south was a settlement (comprising buildings PR1a, PR2a, PR3a, PR5, PR15, and possibly PR14; pit groups ii-v; grain driers 1,2,3 & 5) on the site of the main Late Roman cemetery; and another settlement to the north (comprising buildings PR11, PR12; pit groups vi-vii; grain drier 4) divided by a line of pits (pit group v), perhaps marking a hedged boundary. These were identified as the earliest post-Roman settlement on the site of the late Roman cemetery (3).

<1> Sparey Green, C, 1987, Excavations at Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset 1966-1982. Volume 1: The Settlements (Monograph). SDO9630.

<2> Sparey Green, C, 1966-1979, Poundbury, Grove Trading Estate, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO10096.

<3> Sparey Green, C J, 1996, Poundbury, Dorset: settlement and economy in the Late and post-Roman Dorchester (Article in monograph). SDO10040.

<4> Sparey Green, C J, Living amongst the dead: From Roman cemetery to post-Roman monastic settlement at Poundbury (Article in monograph). SDO10041.

Record last edited

Aug 3 2010 5:30PM