Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A series of ditches with an early to middle Roman date were located across zones 7 and 8 of the excavations associated with the construction of the East Kent Access route in Thanet. it seems likely that they represent field boundaries for a field system which was associated with the early to middle Roman settlement to the south in Zone six. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• GULLY (Late Iron Age to Roman - 100 BC? to 100 AD?)
• ROUND HOUSE (DOMESTIC) (Late Iron Age to Roman - 100 BC? to 100 AD?)
• CEMETERY (Roman - 43 AD? to 199 AD?)
• DITCH (Roman - 43 AD to 199 AD)
• FIELD SYSTEM (Roman - 43 AD to 199 AD)
• INHUMATION (Roman - 43 AD to 199 AD)
• CREMATION (Roman - 100 AD? to 199 AD?)

Associated Finds

• ASSEMBLAGE (Late Iron Age to Roman - 100 BC to 199 AD)

Full description

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A series of ditches with an early to middle Roman date were located across zones 7 and 8 of the excavations associated with the construction of the East Kent Access route in Thanet. it seems likely that they represent field boundaries for a field system which was associated with the early to middle Roman settlement to the south in Zone six.

In detail the southern terminal of a large ditch aligned NNE-SSW was one of the earliest of a succession of features on this alignment. Another small ditch on the same alignment is likely to have been related. Both contained pottery within their fills of a generic Roman date. A sequence of at least four NW-SE aligned ditches of a likely early Roman date were located in the central part of Zone 7. Positioned close to these and likely associated with the earliest of them was a penannular gully representing the likely site of a late Iron age or early Roman round house. Five further ditches were located in the southern end of Zone 8, these were broadly parallel with the ditches in zone 7 and its is likely therefore that they are contemporary. Further ditches were added in the middle Roman period, representing a continued use of the landscape, possibly for agriculture, in this period. A group of four inhumations lay within the southern part of zone 7 none were accompanied by any grave goods though a middle roman date has been suggested for all of them. Two other burials of certain middle roman date (one inhumation and one cremation) were located near the eastern limit of excavation. (information summarised from source) (1)

<1> Andrews et al, 2015, Digging The Gateway: Archaeological Landscapes of South Thanet. The Archaeology of East Kent Access (Phase III) Vol 1: The sites (Monograph). SKE55517.

Sources and further reading