Exploring Kent's Past

It should not be assumed that this site is publicly accessible and it may be on private property. Do not trespass.

Monument details

Summary

During excavations ahead of the development of a site at Cliffsend Farm near Ramsgate, a complex group of prehistoric features including a a large mortuary feature was discovered. The mortuary feature had a long period of use but its focus in the earlies phase of use (Later Bronze Age) was a large pit. This pit contained multiple articulated human bodies alongside a large assemblage of disarticulated human and animal remains. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• BURIAL (Late Bronze Age - 1000 BC to 825 BC)
• PIT (Late Bronze Age - 900 BC to 800 BC)

Associated Finds

• (Undated)
• PENDANT (Middle Bronze Age to Late Bronze Age - 1150 BC to 801 BC)

Full description

If you do not understand anything on this page please contact us.

During excavations ahead of the development of a site at Cliffsend Farm near Ramsgate, a complex group of prehistoric features including a a large mortuary feature was discovered. The mortuary feature had a long period of use but its focus in the earlies phase of use (Later Bronze Age) was a large pit. This pit contained multiple articulated human bodies alongside a large assemblage of disarticulated human and animal remains.

Pit 3666 comprised an ovoid cut (c.4.09m by 53.56m) set on a north south alignment with acute sloping sides the lower parts of which were almost vertical in places. The base was generally flat but had a curved sloping step in its northern half. The pit as excavated appears to have formed a re-cut of an earlier feature which may have been larger but shallower overall or have had a deeper central area. there was an initial phase of natural silting apparent in the fills of the pit, this was followed by a series of deposits in the northeastern third of the pit, of deliberately dumped/redeposited natural and some material derived from the sides of the pit which appear to have slumped in. overlying this were two foetal lambs and a deliberate dump of burnt material which contained processing waste and charred dung and included worked flint, animal bone and a fragment of redeposited human bone. The radiocarbon dates indicate an interval of 1-10 years between the deposition of the remains of the lambs and the use of the pit for the first of four intact human corpses and the placement of an incomplete, articulated but partially decomposed corpse. The absence of evidence for silting in the intervening period suggests that the interval is at the lower end of the suggested range. An elderly adult female was deposited first, she was >50yr and positioned in a flexed position on her left side with her right arm extended above her head and index finger pointing to the south west. The left arm was flexed acutely at the elbow bringing the hand up to face ‘holding’ a small lump of chalk. The remains of two neonate lambs were placed over the human corpse. This burial was followed by two juveniles within a 1-15 year interval. The first of these was 10-11 years old and crouched and possibly bound in prone position. Most of the skull and the right hand were missing likely during earlier disturbance. This burial was partially overlying the earlier burial of the adult female. The second juvenile burial was 10-12 years old, crouched on its right side with legs slumped further to the right and thorax back towards supine position with hands together, possibly tied, under chin. The death though clearly not necessarily the final deposition of the partial remains of the adult male (c.30-35 years) falls next in the sequence. The remains were arranged in a neat bundle (probably originally bagged or bound together) in the south west of the pit overlaying an articulated cattle foot. The remains comprised the skill, spine, left thorax and upper limb including the shoulder. Although articulated, the corpse must have been substantially decomposed such an arrangement of the remains. A composite copper alloy and worked bone object and a copper alloy ring (possibly a pendant) was located with the remains. The final burial was of a sub adult possibly a female aged c.17-18 years, flexed on right side and with head resting on a articulated cattle skull. Although a range of 1-45 years is suggested by the radiocarbon dates, the archaeological evidence suggests that they are likely to have occurred in relatively rapid succession. The fully articulated remains were confined to the south eastern portion of the burial pit while the semi articulated remains were placed against the south west edge of the pit. The burials were covered by a textually undistinguished backfill c.0.4m thick which contained a small quantity of disarticulated human bone and pottery. Above this followed the deposition of two groups of human bone including skulls and long bones which are likely to represent a single depositional episode, and derived from individuals whose deaths predate that of the earliest in situ burials in the pit. Disarticulated and articulated human bone was located in an area just to the north east of the pit. The location and level from which the bone was recovered suggest that they from part of the same feature. Radio carbon dates show a broad correlation between this bone just outside the pit and the bone located within the pits fills. (1-3)

The mortuary rite performed at the site is unusual in a number of ways. The assemblage represents a large number of individuals for these periods. A review in 1995 found only nine Late Bronze Age inhumation sites in mainland Britain. This number has increased since the time of the survey but they remain rare. Particular practices from the site are especially unusual. There is evidence of burial of unburnt remains with subsequent manipulation, communal and individual graves, human and probably animal sacrifice, excarnation with manipulation and redeposition of partially articulated body parts and curation of individual skeletal elements, exposure with canid and possibly avian scavenging and bleaching and charring of some body parts. Most of these occurred during the Late Bronze Age, with manipulation particularly common in this phase of use. One burial in particular appears to have been the focus of activity. The elderly female had been killed probably with a sword by blows to the back of the head. It has been suggested that this was a willing sacrifice. She was laid out in the bottom of the pit with a piece of chalk against her face in her left hand whilst her right hand was positioned with the index finger pointing away from the body towards the centre of the adjacent central enclosure on the site. Two children and a teenage girl had been buried with her together with the partially articulated and re-arranged remains of an adult male. The children's who had been buried with her had skulls which had been manipulated following partial decomposition. The teenager's head and upper body lay over the head and neck of a cow. This was not a single deposition but rather a series of actions over a relatively short period (weeks or months), with the pit left open during this time. The burial was not the first event on the site or in the pit, with two neonatal lambs deposited at least a year before. A second pair of lambs were placed over the woman's lap. A ring ditch marked the location of the burial and a later burial was inserted into this feature, perhaps within 10 years of the initial burial. Grave goods consisted of half a vessel associated with the children, a worked bone and copper alloy object and a lead weight. One of groups of manipulated remains may have been in a bag or bundle and may have arrived at the site in this condition from Scandinavia. (2) (3) (information summarised from source)

<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.

Sources and further reading

Related records