SDO9858 - 'The Excavation of Burials at 8 Albert Road, Dorchester; Interim Report' Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society

Wessex Archaeology undertook an excavation, during June- August 1986, in the garden of 8 Albert Road, Dorchester in advance of gardening works. A total of 18 inhumations were excavated from an area measuring only 8m x 8m. All but one of the burials were extended inhumations lying in fairly shallow, haphazardly oriented graves. The exception was a badly disturbed skeleton lying on its left side in a slightly flexed position and it may be of a later date. Some burials were coffined and only two contained grave goods: a 3rd century copper intaglio ring and a group of 8 jet or shale beads. The burials were cut into a layer of heavy chalk rubble which has been interpreted as the upcast for, or the counterscarp of one of the defensive banks of the Roman town. If these burials are taken together with others at Cornwall Road and Borough Gardens, a large roadside Roman cemetery can be suggested.