Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

During a series of extensive rescue excavations, ahead of development in Dover’s town centre, undertaken by Kent Archaeological Rescue unit a substantial chalk block structure was excavated and recorded. This building appears to pre date the construction of the Roman Saxon Shore fort, as the soils of the southern rampart overly the remains. It is likely that it is contemporary with the earlier fort of the Classis Britannica, approximately 50m to the east of its eastern wall. (location accurate to the nearest 2m based on available information).

Monument Types

• BUILDING (extra mural structure, Roman - 150 AD to 240 AD?)

Associated Finds

• COIN (Roman - 138 AD to 161 AD)
• COIN (Roman - 238 AD to 244 AD)

Full description

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(summarised from publication)

During a series of extensive rescue excavations, ahead of development in Dover’s town centre, undertaken by Kent Archaeological Rescue unit a substantial chalk block structure was excavated and recorded. This building appears to pre date the construction of the Roman Saxon Shore fort, as the soils of the southern rampart overlie the remains. It is likely that it is contemporary with the earlier fort of the Classis Britannica, approximately 50m to the east of its eastern wall.

The building was on an east-west axis and rested upon a set of broad foundations consisting of large, roughly coursed chalk blocks, set in an orange brown clay which between 1.5m and 2.2m wide. Three rooms were represented by the apparent walls and foundations, a neat central rectangular room measuring 5m by 1.35m, flanked on the east and west sides by two further rooms, the full extent of which lay outside the excavated area. The walls were constructed of chalk blocks on the southern side while the north, east and west walls took the form of shallow U shaped hollows within which clay walls were apparent. Traces of a clay floor were located in the eastern room over which were situated thin occupation layers. The whole structure was sealed by a layer of clay which represents the collapse of the northern, eastern and western walls; significantly there were traces of painted wall plaster on these walls, suggesting a domestic use of this building.

The associated dating evidence recovered from within the occupation deposits suggests that the building cannot have been demolished before around A.D. 240. This and the fact that it is sealed by the rampart of the later Roman Saxon Shore Fort implies that it is associated with the Classis Britannica Fort and probably dates to between the mid of the second and the mid third centuries. (1)

<1> Brian Philp, The Discovery and Excavation of the Roman Shore Fort at Dover, Kent (Monograph). SKE32061.

Sources and further reading