Monument record MDO18992 - Durotrigian burial, 1 Casterbridge Road, Dorchester

A burial was found in 1957 about the centre of 1 Casterbridge Road. The skeleton is said to have been extended and orientated north – south. The skeleton was destroyed but pieces of the jawbone of a man aged between 25 and 30 years were found close by. Pottery found with the skeleton - substantial parts of three Durotrigian vessels - are now in the Dorset County Museum. The grave was in a feature described as a trench or fissure 5 feet wide and at least 14 feet deep; this same features was reported from 2 Casterbridge Road and close to Syward Road and at 9 Came View Road, where a worn sestertius of Antoninus Pius (AD 138–61) was said to have been found in the filling.

Farrar R A H, 1957, 'Miscellaneous Discoveries and Museum Accessions' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society (Article in serial). SDO9482.

Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England), 1970, An Inventory of Historical Monuments in the County of Dorset, Volume II (South East) Part 3, 578, no. 218e (Monograph). SDO150.

‘(218) Alington Avenue … (e) Inhumations, five, found since 1951 in building the Came View Estate about 100 yds. E. of Max Gate. The known burials fall into two groups, near the N.W. and S.W. bends in Casterbridge Road. … In the S.W. group … a burial said to have been extended N. to S. was found in 1957 about the centre of No. 1 Casterbridge Road (70578988). The grave was in a trench or fissure 5 ft. wide and here at least 14 ft. deep, also said to have been seen at two points to W.S.W.—at No. 2 Casterbridge Road (70548987) and close to Syward Road (70498986)—and again to E.S.E. at No. 9 Came View Road (70658984) where a worn sestertius of Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138–61) was said to have been found in it. With the skeleton (destroyed) were substantial parts of three Durotrigian vessels (1957.33) with fractures mostly fresh: a bowl of class 1 (no. 23) and a small example of class 2 (cf. no. 19 from Max Gate), and a variant of class 2 with a true pedestal base (no. 24). Parts of a human mandible, of a male (?) aged between 25 and 30, were found a yard away.’

Record last edited

Jan 14 2015 5:27PM