Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Excavations ahead of the development of a site at Cliffsend Farm, Ramsgate, revealed a wide variety of interesting features and finds. The features included a group of Early Bronze Age barrows. The first of these was a double ditched example, possibly comprising two phases - earlier inner ditch with possible grave and later outer ditch. There was a central grave which contained an assemblage of flint pottery and a copper alloy object. There were however, no human remains recovered, it is possible that they did not survive or there may never have been any. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

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

Associated Finds

• SHERD (Early Neolithic to Early Bronze Age - 4000 BC to 1501 BC)
• BEAKER (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• UNIDENTIFIED OBJECT (Early Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 1501 BC)
• WORKED FLINT (Bronze Age - 2350 BC to 701 BC)

Full description

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Barrow 1 was located on a false crest at the southern end of a low ridge, slightly to the south of the highest point in the local topography, and overlooking the break of slope abopve the shore immediately to the south. The barrow was demarcated by a pair of approximately circular concentric ditches. The outer ditch had a maximum width at the top of 3.9m and a maximum surviving depth of 1.35m and a surviving internal diameter of 25m. The broad top of the ditch is likely due to weathering and it is possible that originally the ditch was narrower and steeper sided. The fills suggested a continuous circular ditch which had been left to infill gradually. The only finds from within the fills were four sherds of Peterborough ware pottery and a quantity of worked flint. The inner ditch was of a very different character to the outer and consisted of a series of longer and shorter ditch segments and pits, separated by causeways which may have been the unintentional result of the ditch having been dug in a series of (sometimes intersecting) pits. Assuming a generally circular shale, the maximum surviving external diameter would have been 15m. depths vary quite markedly, with the ends of the ditch segments sloping up to shallow terminals under 0.4m in depth at their deepest the ditch segments survive to 0.55-0.6m in depth. Widths vary similarly between 0.35m and 0.58m wide. Mostly the ditch segments contained relatively few finds, but there was a relative concentration on the southern side, with sherds of Early Neolithic pottery recovered alongside an assemblage of 154 pieces of flint. The central pit was aligned WNW-ESE and was 2.98m long by 1.4m wide and survived to a depth of 0.67m. the feature contained no human remains a heavily corroded copper alloy object measuring 80x40x5mm, which cannot be identified to type was found on the base of the cut, and two groups comprising 188 pieces of struck flint lay on the base at the eastern end. the flint was consistent with Late Neolithic/Early bronze age technologies. The grave also contained 14 sherds of pottery which include two sherds from a possible beaker vessel. There is no evidence for a bank or a mound in any of the fills of either of the ditches. It is also not possible to determine if the ditches are contemporary with each other. It seems possible that the inner ditch was the earlier of the two and was likely contemporary with the central burial. (information summarised from source) (1-4)

<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)