Dorn Roman settlement

 archaeological site, Roman Empire, invisible, scheduled ancient monument

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The monument, which falls into two areas divided by a railway line, includes the largely buried remains of a Roman small town which has two main components: a rectangular defended enclosure adjacent to the Foss Way and a small settlement lying around a broad north-south roadway running parallel to and about 560m to the west of the Foss. The site lies about 1.5km to the north of the town of Moreton-in-Marsh. The rectangular enclosure covers about 4ha, the ditches and banks of which are still visible, although considerably degraded. The ditch appears as a broad depression varying between 30m and 50m in width and up to 1.5m in depth. On the western side the ditch is 20m wide and 1m deep, overlain by traces of medieval cultivation in the form of ridge and furrow. The enclosure lies immediately to the west of the original line of the Foss Way, which is visible from the air as a crop mark running south west to north east across the fields. Aerial photographs show the road as a band of metalling between 8m and 10m wide with intermittent traces of flanking ditches. Within the enclosure, crop marks indicate a number of streets, metalled and up to 5m wide, following the alignment of the enclosure sides and the Foss Way. The settlement within the enclosure is divided into six regular insulae, each of about 0.7ha in area. The northernmost of the east-west streets can be seen to run beyond the eastern part of the settlement to form a `T'-junction with the Foss Way. The presence of a Romano-British settlement site at Dorn has been recognised from the early 17th century and numerous finds were reported from the site over the following 200 years. When the railway line was constructed during the 19th century, archaeological discoveries included building foundations, pits and wells, along with two altar-shaped sculptures. One of these depicts a genius and the other a genius wearing a mural crown and carrying a cornucopia and patera. The site was part excavated between 1937 and 1939 by Lieutenant Colonel R K Morcom, during which a stone-built rectangular structure divided into four rooms with a tiled roof was discovered. Associated finds included painted wall plaster and some coarse tesserae, indicating that there was a building with a tessellated pavement nearby. Trenching to the south of the building revealed evidence for further structures. Below these levels was a floor associated with a timber building of later second to early third century AD. Finds from the excavations included coins dating from the reign of Hadrian (AD 117-138) to the early fifth century, along with pottery of first to fourth century date. In 1994 the Royal Commission on the Historic Monuments of England undertook a topographic survey and aerial photographic transcription. This focused on the western side of the enclosure, revealing a robber trench following the line of the ditch, and a gap in the line of the trench which is thought to indicate the position of a gate. Despite the shape of the fortified enclosure and indications of a planned street grid, there is no evidence that Dorn was ever a military base. The survey also noted the cropmarks of ditched enclosures integrated with the broad tracks of lanes covering an area of about 4.5ha and lying 200m to the west of the defended enclosure. The common alignment of the cropmarks in this area with the lines of the defences and the Foss Way suggest some form of continuity and planned development. The cropmarks are also thought to indicate a lengthy period of occupation, with many intersecting ditches suggestive of episodes of recutting and alignment. Roman pottery and coins have been found in these fields during the 20th century. Excluded from the scheduling are all post and wire fences, wooden post fences, metal and wooden gates and their gateposts, although the ground beneath all these features is included.

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