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Homepage > Specal Dover Week-EndSPECIAL COMMEMORATIVE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL WEEK-END AT DOVER.
Saturday and Sunday 24th and 25th July, 2010.
All CKA Friends and Subscribers are cordially invited to visit the famous Roman House in Dover Town Centre on the above days between 10.00 and 4.30 pm. This special shared event is to celebrate 40 years (1970-2010) of non-stop archaeological excavation, publication and public presentation in Dover by the Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit. The discoveries in that time have been spectacular and have totally transformed knowledge of Roman and Saxon Dover, already published in three major volumes.
The Roman House is among the most complete Roman buildings ever discovered in Britain, with five rooms substantially intact, each with elaborate underfloor heating (hypocaust) and all internal walls covered in painted murals relating to the god Bacchus. It was built by the men of the Roman navy (the Classis Britannica) about AD 200 and partly demolished by the Roman army in about AD 270 when a new fort was built across part of it. The Unit constructed the cover building over the Roman House in 1977 and has managed it ever since during which time it has been visited by over 600,000 people from all parts of the World. It is staffed and managed entirely by Unit volunteers through a special Dover Roman Painted House Trust set up in 1975.
There will be site lectures at 11.00 am and 2.30pm. on both days by archaeologists who discovered the Roman House in 1970. Admission on these two special days only, on production of a CKA Friends membership card, will be free though donations will be welcomed. Visitors should follow the road-signs and there is parking on the forecourt or in nearby town car-parks. The main Dover Priory station is nearby.
Address: New Street, Dover. CT 17 9AJ. (Telephone 01304 203279).
(Images from the 1970/80s excavations in Dover ©)