Monument record MDO18618 - Colliton Park, Dorchester; Infant burial 7

The burial of a young child, apparently wrapped in a shroud held together with bronze pins in a wooden coffin was found in a grave during excavations at Colliton Park, Dorchester in 1937. A braided hair or cord bracelet was found on the left wrist.

Infant Burial 7 was found in Trial Trench A, Section 12SE (about 30m to the southeast of Building I) during excavations at Colliton Park in 1937 (2). It was in a carefully cut grave oriented N-S and was buried in a wooden coffin. The burial was of an 18-23 month old child found extended with the head to the south and apparently had been wrapped in a shroud held together by nine bronze pins, found mainly on the chest. A braided cord or hair bangle was found on the left wrist.

Closer examination (4) indicates a seventeenth-century date for this burial.

<1> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1937-1938, Colliton Park, Dorchester (Excavation archive). SDO10066.

<2> Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 2, 572 (Monograph). SDO149.

‘(215) … (d) Inhumation of a child of about 5 years, extended N. to S. (head S., facing E.) in a grave carefully cut in the Chalk, with remains of a wooden coffin, about 30 yds. S.E. of building (182), Colliton Park (68999093). It had apparently been wrapped in a shroud done up with bronze pins, of which several were found, mainly on the chest; on the left wrist was a cord or hair bangle. Parallel with the grave and adjoining its W. side, a shallow elongated pit contained a bronze ring, an iron blade, a fragment of glass, and animal bones. (Objects in D.C.M., untraced, Colliton Park 1622C–1629C; site notebook IV, 12.).’

<3> Firth, J, 1992, Report on the Infant Burials from Colliton Park, Dorchester, Dorset (Unpublished document). SDO10067.

<4> Fulford, M, Batcheller, J, Caple, C, Firth, J, and Richards, D, 2011, A child's burial in unconsecrated ground in early modern Dorchester, Dorset. Post-Medieval Archaeology (Article in serial). SDO20671.

Record last edited

Aug 22 2024 7:30PM