Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

During the excavation of the ground to a depth of c. 3m on the corner of Bridge Street, Dover in 1863, a number of Roman vessels were uncovered, three of which contained fragments of calcined human bone. (location accurate to the nearest 20m based on available information)

Monument Types

• CREMATION (CREMATION, Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• HUMAN REMAINS (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Associated Finds

• AMPULLA (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• JAR (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• PATERA (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• URN (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)
• VESSEL (Roman - 43 AD to 409 AD)

Full description

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During the excavation of the ground to a depth of c. 3m on the corner of Bridge Street, Dover in 1864, a number of Roman vessels were uncovered, three of which contained fragments of calcined human bone. The first vessel to be uncovered was large a globular Dolium, 0.55m high and 0.46m in diameter and capped with a Roman tile. Within this Dolium was another vessel; a complete long necked glass ampulla, 0.18m high, at the bottom of which were located a number of calcined human bones in small fragments. A second Dolium, the same as the first in type, material and size, was also located during these works, again containing another smaller vessel, this time a broken Samian ware Patera, approximately 0.19m in diameter and again containing fragments of calcined human bones. A third vessel also containing human bones was located on the corner of Bridge Street, this was a jar shaped vessel of back ware which had been roughly glazed and was c. 0.36m high and 0.33m in diameter. On one side of this vessel some characters appeared to have been rudely scored; these are probably numerals, apparently YV, or X and V, and they may have indicated the measure of the contents of the jar. The bones in these vases consisted of only a small portion of the human skeleton, and, with the exception of a fragment of a cranium in the second vase, the bones of the head and also the jaws were, entirely missing. Alongside the human bones within the second vessel were located a large quantity of snail shell, these may have been placed there with provisions of food as snails were often part of a Roman diet. A final vessel was also located among this assemblage, but this time devoid of human remains, this was a complete cantharus of a brownish red ware. (1-2)

No further information about these finds available.

<1> VCH Kent 3 1932 47 (REM Wheeler) (OS Card Reference). SKE51125.

<1> Page, W. (ed), 1932, The Victoria History of the Counties of England: Kent Volume III, VCH Kent 3 1932 47 (REM Wheeler) (Monograph). SKE7810.

<2> Ambrose Poynter, 1864, Archaeological Journal. Proceedings at Meetings of the Royal Archaeological institute. Vol. 21, Arch J 21 1864 182-83 (Camden) (Article in serial). SKE32123.

Sources and further reading