Monument record MDO19286 - Poundbury, Dorchester; post-Roman Structure R20a

Structure R20a was discovered during the 1966-79 excavations at Poundbury, Dorchester. It lay in the northeast corner of the excavations on Site G and only part of the western edge of this structure was exposed. It comprised a line of eight postholes, which may have formed the west wall of a rectangular post-built building. It lay immediately to the north of a possible road to the north gate of Durnovaria. This structure was originally tentatively assigned a Late Roman date, but has subsequently been assigned to phase 1 of the post-Roman settlement on the basis of its similarity to the post-Roman post-built buildings which characterise this phase.

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).

Structure R20a lay in the northeastern part of the area on Site G. It comprised a series of eight postholes in an approximate line aligned roughly N-S. This may have been the western side of a rectangular post-built building, which lay largely to the east, outside the excavated area. No internal features within this building were exposed in the small part of this structure exposed within the excavation trench. Structure R20a lay to the north of the possible road to the north gate of Dorchester [G1090], on a slightly different alignment to it, suggesting the two were not contemporary.

This structure was not fully defined in the original monograph publication, although the various postholes were described and it was tentatively placed in the late Roman settlement phase (1). It was only in the later review of the post-Roman settlement that it was labelled R20a and included in the phase 1 post-Roman settlement, largely based on its morphology, being similar to the post-Roman post-built buildings which characterise this phase (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.

Record last edited

Mar 21 2011 10:32AM