Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Excavations in advance of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in 2002-3 a large flat bottomed pit representing the site of a sunken feature building was uncovered within property 12 of the Roman roadside settlement at Springhead. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• GRUBENHAUS? (Roman - 100 AD? to 225 AD?)
• PIT (Roman - 100 AD? to 225 AD?)

Full description

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Excavations in advance of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in 2002-3 a large flat bottomed pit representing the site of a sunken feature building was uncovered within property 12 of the Roman roadside settlement at Springhead. The pit was rectangular and measured 6m by 4.5m and was 0.8m deep. There were no clearly associated post-holes, but the vertical sides might suggest that it had been lined, perhaps with timber. The pit was filled with a complex series of deposits but nothing which might clearly indicate its original purpose, though storage (for grain?) is a possibility. Pottery recovered from within the spans the early/mid 2nd–early 3rd century, suggesting that the pit may have been dug slightly later than the construction of the aisled barn located nearby, though its use is likely to have been broadly contemporaneous. (1)

<1> 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 The Late Iron Age, Roman, Saxon, and Medieval Landscape (Unpublished document).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

Related records