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Monument details
| HER Number: | TQ 67 SW 1536 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | Early Roman Occupation Site, Ebbsfleet Valley - Ditch |
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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.
30m ditch from the citern to the Ebbsfleet.
Three cisterns or tanks were identified.
Location accurate to 2m based on available information.
| Grid Reference: | TQ 6162 7408 |
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| Map Sheet: | TQ67SW |
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| Parish: | SWANSCOMBE AND GREENHITHE, DARTFORD, KENT |
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Monument Types
- DITCH (Roman - 43 AD? to 99 AD?)
- SITE (Roman - 43 AD? to 99 AD?)
| Protected Status: | Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England: Site of a Roman villa revealed by excavations. A bath building with moasics was also excavated. Some medieval features and possible prehistoric pits also located within this area. |
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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 NW - SE aligned ditch was identified extending at least 30m from one of the cisterns to the Ebbsfleet. The profile was variable and the based was lined with clay and chalk. The ditch was initially filled with a sequence of thin silty sand and clay waterlain deposits, usually sterile except for occasional charcoal fragments that accumulated during drainage. Upper fills were more mixed, however, containing building material and, in one fill, abundant oyster shell. (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 Oxford Archaeology, 2003, Ebbsfleet Valley Detailed Mitigation Works, Northfleet, Kent: Interim Statement (Unpublished document).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
| Cross-ref.
| Source description | | <1> | Unpublished document: Oxford Archaeology. 2003. Ebbsfleet Valley Detailed Mitigation Works, Northfleet, Kent: Interim Statement. |
| <2> | Unpublished document: 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. |
Related records
| TQ 67 SW 297 | Part of: Early Roman Occupation Site, Ebbsfleet Valley (Monument) |
