SDO9895 - 'Roman Britain in 1969: Southern Counties' Britannia

Brief catalogue of archaeological works carried out on Roman sites in Britain during 1969. This includes the following summaries for sites in Dorchester (on page 298), reproduced here in full. Dorchester (SY692904): excavations with the SW corner of the town disclosed a building, at least 16 b y 8 m containing six stone furnaces probably for metalworking, and probably built in the late second century and destroyed in the late fourth century. A section of through the rear of the S rampart of the town defences near this building confirmed that the rampart was constructed after c. AD150 and revealed remains of a contemporary timber structure, perhaps a tower. Several large, chalk-pits may have been quarries for rampart material. p298. [By messrs J P Greene, W G Putnam, and N J Sunter for the Dorchester Excavation Committee interim report PDNHAS 91 (1969), 181 ff.] Poundbury (SY685911): A further area of the late Roman cemetery on the hillside E of the hillfort produced 40 more inhumations, all with head to the W. Largely or exclusively Christian use has been suggested. A small mausoleum had held three burials in Hamstone coffins, one of which had a filling of gypsum preserving impressions of a shroud evidently edged with gold wire. Burials in another similar building have yet to be cleared, but some of the fallen wall plaster has already been pieced together to show part of a group of robed figures carrying staffs. p298 [Excavation for the Dorchester Excavation Committee was directed by Mr C. J. Green; interim report ibid 183 ff, and see also Current Archaeology 2 (1969-70), 259 f.]