Monument record MDO604 - Roman burials, South side of Bridport Road, Burton Bradstock

Two probable Roman burials of 1st century date accompanied by a jar and a bowl were found during the building of flats in a garden on the south side of Bridport Road.

Two inhumation burials were discovered during the building of flats in a garden on the south side of the Bridport Road opposite a private house called The Retreat (shown at SY 486 896 on the OS 25 plan). The first grave lay 51 ft south of the road; the second lay to the NW some 21 ft south of the road. A hand-made bead rim jar and bowl accompanied the burials. Charcoal, coarse ware sherds and a fragment of iron were also found. Both burials probably belong to the Roman period; the first mentioned more probably to the 1st century AD than later. (1)

Skeleton no.1 lay on its right side, at a depth of about 2 and a half ft. before the ground was levelled, and was aligned at about 312 degrees, i.e. with head almost due N.W. The legs were tightly flexed, at a right angle to the spine, and the right arm, at least, was extended alongside the body. The right half of the mandible was recovered, with sound teeth indicating an individual aged between 14 and 21 and probably about 16, according to a dental surgeon. Fragments of charcoal, six amorphous coarse ware sherds and one fragment of iron (nail?) were found above the body, which was accompanied by a miniature jar placed, apparently upright, by the head, and a bowl, position unknown, of Maiden Castle 'war cemetery' type. Parts of both vessels are missing but the fresh breaks show that they were intact before discovery.
Although both vessels accompanying burial 1 are of types developed in the Iron Age 'C' phase, they remained popular after the Roman conquest for an indefinite period and the writer is unaware of an instance of the miniature version of the Durotrigian bead-rim jar in a pre-Roman context. Both burials probably belong, therefore, to the Roman period, and burial no.1 more probably to the 1st century AD than later.
THE POTTERY
No.1. Hand-made bead-rim jar of Brailsford's Durotrigian type 4, but in miniature; fairly hard sandy black or dark grey body, discoloured brown on surfaces. The vessel appears rather worn, and little remains of the characteristic burnished surface except on the inside of the rim.
No.2. Hand-made bead-rim bowl of Maiden Castle 'war cemetery' type (Brailsford's type 1), with under-base decoration; fairly hard sandy dark grey body, with a thin brick-red zone or 'rind' below a dark grey to black surface in part discoloured light grey externally. The vessel was horizontally burnished outside and on the upper part of the interior; the matt underside of the base, within the foot-ring, carries two burnished crosses (with bars respectively 5mm. and 8mm. wide) superimposed to form an asterisk. The matt interior, stippled conventionally in the drawing, shows faint erratic striations probably produced by the potter wiping out the bowl before drying.
An interesting problem of technique is raised by the marked colour contrast between the dense black of the burnished surfaces and the dark grey of the matt, particularly noticeable where the irregular tool marks impinge upon the latter. The exact coincidence with the tooling rules out 'fuming' - the deposition of carbon particles in a damp and smoky kiln - as a special cause; likewise the application of an iron-rich slip, or the employment by the potter of a wet-hand or 'slurry' finish to bring up the clay fraction to cover a gritty clay body. The writer owes to Mr. H. M. W. Hodges the suggestions that it may be due (i) to burnishing with a piece of kidney haematite, which could leave a deposit turning to magnetite on firing in a reducing atmosphere; (ii), as seems more likely, to failure, in firing, to burn out carbon from the areas rendered more resistant by burnishing; or (iii) a combination of both. Exposure to hotter gases could explain the light grey discolouration. Mr. Hodges has kindly undertaken to test these hypotheses. (2)

<1> Farrar R A H, 1965, Roman Inhumation Burials at Burton Bradstock and Chickerell, Dorset, 114-115 (Article in serial). SWX1283.

<2> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1967, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1966, 114-115 (Serial). SDO66.

<3> Woodward P J, 1980, Comparison of Coin Groups from Romano-British Settlements in Purbeck - a Reflection of their Contrasting Status ?, 104 (Article in serial). SWX9222.

<4> Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1982, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society for 1980, 104 (Serial). SDO80.

<5> National Record of the Historic Environment, 449867 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

Record last edited

Dec 28 2022 3:29PM