Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Enclosures and features which predate the villa complex on this site. The site consists of possible timber structures, wood and clay lined cisterns and an enclosure ditch.

A sequence of thee pits was identified.

Location accurate to 2m based on available information.

Monument Types

• PIT (Roman - 43 AD? to 99 AD?)
• SITE (Roman - 43 AD? to 99 AD?)

Associated Finds

• SHERD (Roman - 43 AD to 70 AD)

Full description

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Early Roman site in use prior to the construction of Northfleet Villa (TQ 67 SW 38 & 1001). The site consists of possible timber structures suggested by post holes, an enclosure ditch which had steep sides and a stone lined "ankle-breaker" in the base, and a number of cisterns either wood or clay lined. An articulated horse skeleton and fragments of a mill stone were found in two of the wood line cisterns. (1)

A sequence of pits was identified. The earlest measured up to 3.20 m wide at the top and at least 1.30 m deep. This pit was initially
vertical sided, but then flattened out to create a horizontal ledge or step before resuming its steep angle. It was filled with a
succession of sandy silt fills, probably colluvial in origin. The fills were mostly sterile but the lower fill contained four sherds of grog-tempered ware and Thameside grey ware broadly dating to the later 1st century AD. After the pit had filled, it was cut by a second pit which was 2.60 m wide and 0.30 m deep. The fill was a similar sandy silt or colluvial deposits, which yielded another four sherds of pottery. This included shelly ware, a Verulamium-region ware disc-mouthed flagon, and North Kent white-slipped oxidised ware that
suggested an AD 70–160 date range for filling. A third pit was then cut which was c 2.50 m wide and 1.05 m deep and contained at least two fills. No dating evidence beyond broadly dated Roman tile was recovered from this fill (2).

Location accurate to 2m based on available information.

<1> Oxford Archaeology, 2003, Ebbsfleet Valley Detailed Mitigation Works, Northfleet, Kent: Interim Statement (Unpublished document). SKE12256.

<2> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2010, Settling the Ebbsfleet Valley. CTRL Excavations at Springhead and Northfleet, Kent. The Late Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval Landscape (Unpublished document). SKE31245.

Sources and further reading

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