Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A skeleton buried with an Anglo-Saxon knife was found on Primrose Hill near Monkton in 1879 (see TR 26 NE 137). An archaeological investigation was undertaken in the area in 1971 and 1982 in advance of work to lay a gas pipeline. Thirty four mainly east-west aligned graves were revealed. Some of the burials contained a rich assemblage of grave goods whilst many others contained less elaborate artefacts. The grave goods included weapons, jewellery, glassware and other personal items. Analysis of these materials indicates that the cemetery was in use mainly during the sixth and seventh centuries AD. There was also some evidence of a mixture of burial practice as sherds from one grave appeared to indicate a cremation burial. Evidence revealed by the investigations also suggested that some of the later, seventh centuries graves may have been originally covered with grave mounds, subsequently levelled by ploughing. This area has been scheduled as an ancient monument site.

The site lies on a gentle south facing slope, between 15-25m.

Monument Types

• CREMATION (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? (at some time) to 699 AD? (at some time))
• INHUMATION CEMETERY (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? (at some time) to 699 AD? (at some time))

Associated Finds

• BEAKER (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)
• BRACELET (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)
• BROOCH (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)
• BROOCH (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)
• BUCKLE (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)
• KNIFE (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)
• NECKLACE (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)
• POTTERY ASSEMBLAGE (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)
• SHIELD (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)
• SWORD (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)
• TWEEZERS (Early Medieval or Anglo-Saxon - 500 AD? to 699 AD?)

Full description

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A skeleton with a knife at the side (presumably Anglo-Saxon) was foundon Primrose Hill, Monkton, about 1879. (See TR 26 NE 137 but probably part of the same cemetery) (1) (a)

Primrose Hill, centred TR 292653 is a small knoll situated just below the main Thanet ridge. It is mainly arable land belonging to Waters Hall Farm but it contains a large chalk quarry disused since about the turn of the century. There is no record of recent finds from the area. (2)

Acol: A skeleton found in 1879 with an iron knife and fragments of a pot. Unlocated. [Classified as "inhumation burial"] (3)

TR 29106550 An Anglo-Saxon cemetery revealed by a gas board pipe trench in 1971, occupying an area approximately 370 yards from east towest, and probably 200 yards from north to south, lies south of the Sarre to Ramsgate Road. Twenty two graves were destroyed by the pipe trench and sherds from one suggest Monkton may have neen a mixed rite cemetery with cremation burial starting in the 5th century, while the most recent inhumation burials is dated to the late 7th century. Grave goods include, a gold composite jewelled disc brooch, a green glass bell-beaker, a number of beads, remains of iron knives and a sword, bronze brooches, tweezers, buckles and 3 shield bosses. (4 - 6)

Primrose Hill, Monkton. In 1879 a skeleton with a knive and pottery was found here. In 1942 an unfurnished crouched burial was found in agrave, at Acol, south of Quex Park, Birchington. The grave was 4 feetlong, 2ft 4 ins deep, dug in clean chalk. (7)

TR 294655 and 500 metres eastwards. Excavations were continued during the construction of the Monkton gas pipeline in 1982. At a point 300 metres west of the Monkton roundabout and continuing eastwards a number of sites were discovered including Anglo Saxon burials. All but one of the 13 graves found were orientated east- west, head west. The exception, grave no 26 ran north-south, head north. The graves were very shallow, and had suffered plough damage in recent times. Some grave structures were observed. Only two graves held artifacts reflecting any richness of the cemetery. Grave 14, had a square headed brooch and gold threads from a headdress. Grave 26 yielded a sword (the hilt ploughed off), a long arm shield boss, a gold "D" type braceate, and a buckle of tinned bronze. None of the artefacts from the cemetery could be attributed a date much before or beyond the 7th century. (8,9)

Monkton, Kent. Grave 12 lower part of a biconical bottle base concave found with 2 bronze annular brooches, bronze fragment and a knife. Now in Ashmolean Museum 1972.1412. Bottle fragments with roulette pattern found in grave 18, now in Ashmolean Museum 1972.1422. (10)

Gold foils from grave 3. (11)

The monument includes an early medieval inhumation cemetery and traces of a later medieval settlement situate on the southern slope of a low chalk ridge around half a km north of the village of Monkton. The cemetery survives in the form of below ground remains. It lies immediately south of the modern A253, which follows the course of Dunstrete, an important east-west aligned ancient routeway across Thanet. Investigations carried out during gas pipeline laying just to the south of, and parallel to, the modern road in 1971 and 1982 revealed 34 mainly east-west aligned graves extending across the monument. The burials were accompanied by a rich assemblage of grave goods, or artefacts deliberately buried with the bodies. The grave goods included weapons, jewellery, glassware and other personal items, and the analysis of these has indicated that the cemetery was in use mainly during the sixth and seventh centuries AD. Evidence revealed by the investigations suggested that some of the later, seventh centuries were originally covered with grave mounds, subsequently levelled by ploughing. Cropmarks visible on aerial photographs indicate three circular, ditched graves and an associated irregular enclosure near the northern edge of the monument. One grave was found to retain evidence for a wooden structure, thought to have supported a bier of coffin. Further graves and associated below ground archaeological remains can be expected to survive in the areas between and around the known burials and crop marks.(21)

Additional Info (12 - 20 & 22)

From the National Heritage List of England

Details
The monument includes an Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery and traces of a later medieval settlement situated on the southern slope of a low chalk ridge around 0.5km north of the village of Monkton, on the Isle of Thanet. Until around the 14th century Monkton lay on the north eastern shore of the Wantsum Channel, a now silted-up estuarine waterway which separated Thanet from the Kent mainland.

The Anglo-Saxon cemetery survives in the form of below ground remains. It lies immediately south of the modern A253 road, which follows the course of Dunstrete, an important east-west aligned ancient routeway across Thanet. Investigations carried out during gas pipeline laying just to the south of, and parallel to, the modern road in 1971 and 1982 revealed 34 mainly east-west aligned graves extending across the monument. The burials were accompanied by a rich assemblage of grave goods, or artefacts deliberately buried with the bodies. The grave goods included weapons, jewellery, glassware and other personal items, and the analysis of these has indicated that the cemetery was in use mainly during the sixth and seventh centuries AD. Evidence revealed by the investigations suggested that some of the later, seventh century graves were originally covered with grave mounds, subsequently levelled by ploughing. Crop marks visible on aerial photographs indicate three circular, ditched graves and an associated irregular enclosure near the northern edge of the monument. One grave was found to retain evidence for a wooden structure, thought to have supported a bier or coffin. Further graves and associated below ground archaeological remains can be expected to survive in the areas between and around the known burials and crop marks.

An oval pit and a number of associated ditches discovered during the pipeline operations in the north western corner of the monument have been interpreted as traces of a later medieval settlement. Analysis of pottery sherds found in the pit suggests that the settlement dates to the years around AD 1080-1150. The monument has been partly disturbed by the pipeline laying and modern ploughing.

Reasons for Designation
Beginning in the fifth century AD, there is evidence from distinctive burials and cemeteries, new settlements, and new forms of pottery and metalwork, of the immigration into Britain of settlers from northern Europe, bringing with them new religious beliefs. The Roman towns appear to have gone into rapid decline and the old rural settlement pattern to have been disrupted. Although some Roman settlements and cemeteries continued in use, the native Britons rapidly adopted many of the cultural practices of the new settlers and it soon becomes difficult to distinguish them in the archaeological record. So-called Anglo-Saxon cemeteries are dated to the early Anglo-Saxon period, from the fifth to the seventh centuries AD. With the conversion to Christianity during the late sixth and seventh centuries AD, these pagan cemeteries appear to have been abandoned in favour of new sites, some of which have continued in use up to the present day. Burial practices included both inhumation and cremation. Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemeteries consist predominantly of inhumation burials which were placed in rectangular pits in the ground, occasionally within coffins. The bodies were normally accompanied by a range of grave goods, including jewellery and weaponry. The cemeteries vary in size, the largest containing several hundred burials. Around 1000 inhumation cemeteries have been recorded in England. They represent one of our principal sources of archaeological evidence about the Early Anglo-Saxon period, providing information on population, social structure and ideology. All surviving examples, other than those which have been heavily disturbed, are considered worthy of protection.

The Anglo-Saxon inhumation cemetery at Monkton survives well, despite some subsequent disturbance, in close association with traces of later medieval occupation. Part excavation has shown that it contains important archaeological and environmental evidence relating to the original use of the monument. Unusually, the cemetery retains evidence of original wooden structures within the graves. The Monkton cemetery belongs to a group of similar, broadly contemporary Anglo-Saxon cemeteries which cluster in eastern Kent, distinguished by their rich grave goods with continental, Jutish associations. This clustering illustrates the dense Early Anglo-Saxon settlement of this area. The close association between the cemetery and the traces of Norman occupation will provide evidence for the as yet little understood relationship between early and later medieval settlement and burial practices. (23)

<1> Guide to Thanet 46 (Kelly) (OS Card Reference). SKE43643.

<2> VCH Kent 1 1908 385-6 (R A Smith) (OS Card Reference). SKE50877.

<3> F1 CFW 28-NOV-63 (OS Card Reference). SKE42799.

<4> C W Phillips D A Index (No references given) (OS Card Reference). SKE38459.

<5> Arch Cant 89 1974 49-89 illus (S C Hawkes and A C Hogarth) (OS Card Reference). SKE35993.

<6> Arch Cant 86 1971 246 (D G Scurell) (OS Card Reference). SKE35870.

<7> Macpherson-Grant, N., 1973, Operation Gas Pipe: Thanet Section, KAR 30 1972-3 298-299 (N Macpherson Grant) (Article in serial). SKE11847.

<8> Gaz of Early Anglo Saxon Burial Sites 1964 132 (A Meaney) (OS Card Reference). SKE43502.

<9> KAR 75 1985 124 (D Perkins) (OS Card Reference). SKE45424.

<10> Perkins, D. R. J. & Hawkes, S. C., 1985, The Thanet Gas Pipeline Phases I & II (Monkton Parish) 1982, Arch Cant 101 1984 83-114 illus (D R J Perkins and S Chadwick Hawkes) (Article in serial). SKE11845.

<11> Wheel thrown Pottery in Anglo Saxon Graves 1979 72 fig 7 d 24h 70 fig 5d (V I Evison) (OS Card Reference). SKE51319.

<12> Md Arch 21 1977 19 (Avent and leigh) (OS Card Reference). SKE46603.

<13> AP (NMR TR2965/? [FILM 1661 FRAMES 359-60] 16 7 79) (OS Card Reference). SKE33935.

<14> Thanet The Arch Heritage c 1982 9 (Thanet Dist Council and Isle of Thanet Arch Unit) (OS Card Reference). SKE49882.

<15> Ashmolean Museum Annual Report 1971-2 18 (R W Hamilton) (OS Card Reference). SKE37405.

<16> Ant J 54 (2) 1974 245-256 illus (S Chadwick Hawkes) (OS Card Reference). SKE33208.

<17> Antiq J 54 1974 245-256 (S C Hawkes) (OS Card Reference). SKE33253.

<18> DOE (IAM) SAMS 1988 Kent 23 (OS Card Reference). SKE40771.

<19> Trust for Thanet Archaeology, 1987, Isle of Thanet Archaeological Unit Sites and Monuments Archive, Isle of Thanet Arch Unit Sites and Mons Archive 1988 Record no 147 plan (Collection). SKE11846.

<20> Field report for monument TR 26 NE 13 - November, 1963 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5812.

<21> English Heritage Scheduling Section, 1999, Anglo-Saxon Cemetery and Associated Remains at Monkton, 550m North of Walters Hall Farm, SAM 31409 (Scheduling record). SKE11849.

<22> Trust for Thanet Archaeology, 1991, Proposed Improvements to The A253 Between Monkton & Ramsgate: The Archaeological Implications (Unpublished document). SKE11867.

<23> English Heritage, Register of Scheduled Monuments (Scheduling record). SKE16191.

Sources and further reading

Related records