Dorset Diggers Community Archaeology Group have just finished digging an artefact rich Roman military base at a site near Sherborne. The main feature was a 3m wide and 1m deep defensive ditch full of building material and a fine pottery known as Black Burnished Ware which was made in Dorset to a very high quality and exported to all parts of Britain. First indications are that this site dates to the late 1st or early 2nd century AD and dominated the local area during the subjugation of the local Iron Age tribes under the confederation of the Durotriges, which covered Dorset and parts of Devon and Somerset.
Not many sites of this type have been excavated and those that have are light on artefacts, so this new site is very important for our understanding of this type of Roman settlement. It is possible that very rich buildings also existed in the immediate area, due to the high class pottery and also some small fragments of painted plaster found on the site. Most finds were of building material coming from substantial structures. DDCAG are now looking at another enclosure in the same field, which could be Iron Age or contemporary with the Roman site.
Chris Tripp
