Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

During excavation in advance of new housing, 6 early bronze age barrows were discovered. The excavators suggested that barrow 1, the south-westernmost, was the initial barrow around which the others had been grouped. Each barrow survived in the form of its ditches and in four cases, an internal features, probably a grave. No traces of any mounds survived, nor could they be inferred.

Monument Types

• ROUND BARROW (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)

Associated Finds

• ANIMAL REMAINS (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• BEAKER (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• FLAKE (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)
• POTTERY ASSEMBLAGE (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)

Full description

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In 2004/5 the site at Cliffs End Farm was excavated. The earliest evidenced activity on the site consisted of six Early Bronze Age round barrows. Soil conditions on the site meant that bone had not survived and as such no burials were located. Despite this, the central burial of the first barrow (double-ditched, barrow 1) was located, the grave containing a collection of flint tools and a bronze object (too corroded for identification). Part of this barrow remains in situ below a tree on the site. The second barrow, to the north of the first, had a structure at its centre made up from four post holes in a rectangular arrangement. A similar structure was found at the centre of the third barrow. The fourth barrow had three ring ditches around it and again had a structure at its centre. (1)


The barrows were accompanied by a substantial quantity of struck flint and pottery, all of which suggested an early bronze age date. Two of the barrows (barrow 1 and 2) also contained pottery believed to derive from Beaker vessels. (2) (3)

<1> Wessex Archaeology, 2005, Cliffs End Farm, Ramsgate, Kent: Archaeological Assessment Report (Unpublished document). SKE13692.

<2> Jacqueline I. McKinley, Jörn Schuster and Andrew Millard, 2013, Dead-sea connections: A Bronze Age and Iron Age ritual site on the Isle of Thanet (Bibliographic reference). SKE24068.

<3> Wessex Archaeology, 2014, Cliffs End Farm, Isle of Thanet, Kent: a mortuary and ritual site of the Bronze Age, Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon period (Bibliographic reference). SKE30562.

<4> Wessex Archaeology, 2004, Cliffs End Farm, Ramsgate, Kent: archaeological evaluation report (Unpublished document). SKE30563.

Sources and further reading

Related thematic articles

• Anglo-Saxon Kent (Period Overview)