Reports: Archaeology in Kent, 1938, Dartford Borough Museum, Research at Dover during 1938

REPORTS. 149 RESEARCH AT DOVER DURING 1938. MR. E. G. J. AAMOS writes that work on the Adrian Street Clearance Area opened up in the bank of a new road along PUot Meadow a curious rectangular structure buUt of chalk and roUed flints, set at the top and faced up in pink mortar, but lower down buUt with mortar of a brownish colour. When cleared out under the supervision of the Borough Engineer, it was revealed as a pit 37 inches square. It was excavated to a depth of 1 foot below the road trench and then showed 4 feet of walling, but bottom was not reached. The filling included nothing datable, but a piece of Hythe Stone showed signs office. Mr. Amos queries was it a Roman burial shaft and perhaps shnUar to a timber-lined one at Bekesbourne. A surface drain in the same area starting from near the top of Five Post Lane, and dug 8 feet deep, showed made ground with Roman rubbish, including the neck of a glass bottle, pieces of human skuU, a dice-like object with hollows in the sides, a smaU tube ornamented with raised rings, two Samian bases (one with part of a stamp) and pieces of tufa. Near Chapel Place there was opened up a patch of sandy soU simUar to the blown sand that runs from Snargate Street to Market Square. Above the last site a skeleton was exposed lying across the line of a trench with head towards the South-East. The grave had been dug where 9 inches of clay lay above 2 feet 6 inches of chalky marl. Gossip hinted that some coins had been found in connection with the burial. (The Museum has a denarius of Antoninus Pius from the area.) The excavations exposed no trace of the town waU or gate. Further trench digging up to 8 feet in depth, indicated a chalk face which had been leveUed up with made ground. Roman material was found in this, with pieces of tufa at the bottom. A similar feature was noted in Albany Place in 1917 or 1918. Human bones were again found during this section of the work.