A Romano-British Cemetery on Watling Street: Excavations at 165 Dover Street, Southwark, London

Excavations in 1996 and 1997 at 165 Great Dover Street, Southwark uncovered important new evidence of burials and structures associated with a Roman roadside cemetery to the south-east of the Southwark. The cemetery was most extensive in the early third century, and indicates that construction of high-status mausolea and other burial structures extended about half a kilometre down Watling Street from the boundary of the settlement. The arrangement of the structures and lack of intercutting burials suggest that the cemetery held private plots used by wealthy families for extended periods of time. One of the burials contained the cremated remains of a female, with at least nine pottery tazze, eight pottery lamps with images of Anubis and a gladiator, and an exceptional array of plant remains, many imported from the Mediterranean, including stone pine, white almond and the first occurrence in London of date fruit.