Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

During excavations associated with the East Kent Access Route (2009-2011) in Zone 10a Late Iron Age - early/middle Roman ditches and enclosures associated with a field system were discovered together with post-built structures and round houses, sunken featured buildings, pits and a small cemetery. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information)

Monument Types

• FIELD SYSTEM (Late Iron Age to Roman - 0 AD to 199 AD?)
• DITCH (Roman - 43 AD to 199 AD)
• GRUBENHAUS (Roman - 43 AD to 199 AD)
• PIT (Roman - 43 AD to 199 AD)
• POST BUILT STRUCTURE (Roman - 43 AD to 199 AD)

Associated Finds

• POTTERY ASSEMBLAGE (Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)
• POTTERY ASSEMBLAGE (Late Iron Age to Roman - 100 BC to 409 AD)
• BROOCH (Late Iron Age to Roman - 0 AD to 150 AD)

Full description

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During excavations associated with the East Kent Access Route (2009-2011) in Zone 10a iron age ditches and enclosures associated with a field system were discovered together with post-built structures and round houses.

Settlement at the south end of Zone 10 seems to have taken a fairly complex form when compared to the settlement discovered to the south In Zone 6. The principal alignment of features followed a broadly WNW-ESE trend observed widely in zone 10 and to an extent in zones 7 and 8 to the south. Linear boundaries, trackways and enclosures all followed this alignment with varying degrees of precision, generally reflecting topography with the ground sloping up to the north on sevenscore and further to the south to Cottington Hill. Here again the chronological emphasis is on the late Iron age/early Roman as far as obvious settlement features are concerned. A series of rectangular enclosures defined small fields and paddocks. The most clearly defined element was a subdivided rectilinear enclosure measuring 43m x 27m attached to the south side of a boundary ditch crossing the northern part of the area. within the enclosure were a sunken feature building measuring 4m x 2m and four post granary structure and it is possible that there were further structures and other features which did not survive. To the south a complex sequence of ditches probably defined successive trackways and one of the shallow elongated enclosures on their south side contained a small mixed-rite and long-lived cemetery. 9 inhumation burials and 5 cremations were recorded. The activity diminished in the later Roman period though the cemetery continued in use. A second sunken featured building Also south of the large enclosure was a funnel-shaped enclosure, possibly designed to control livestock. There were also several other four-post structures (possibly grain stores) and circular gullies that were interpreted as round-houses located across this zone. A large boundary ditch ran in a north-west south-east direction and defined the northern extent of the settlement. (information summarised from source) (1-2)

<1> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2011, East Kent Access (Phase II), Thanet, Kent: Post-Excavation Assessment Volume 1 (Unpublished document). SKE29279.

<2> 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

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