Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

An Iron Age settlement with enclosure, discovered during rescue excavations at the Isle of Grain Gravel pit near Rose Court Farm. The excavations revealed circular ditched enclosures containing possible hut structures. The ditches contained pottery dating from the first centuries BC and AD. A Romano-British Inhumation cememtery was found overlying the southern part of this complex (see TQ 87 NE 1052).

Monument Types

• ENCLOSURE (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• SETTLEMENT (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)

Full description

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TQ 884 772: Iron Age settlement. (1) Selective rescue-excavation and subsequent salvage work in an extensive and very active gravel pit revealed further evidence of Iron Age and Romano-British settlement over some 20 acres. A series of broadly circular ditched enclosures, generally 18 x 25m in diameter, enclosed traces of possible huts. The ditches were frequently recut and contained pottery of the first centuries BC and AD. The Romano-British features came from the southern end of the site and were limited to a small rectangular enclosure, two cremations and field ditches. The pottery dates from the second to fourth centuries. (2) Superimposed across an area of Iron Age occupation which was the southern part of the Iron Age complex previously examined in advance of gravel working lay part of a late Roman cemetery with at least forty seven inhumations. Grave goods suggest a tentative date-range of 250-300 (TQ 87 NE 1052) (3). Additional bibliography (4-6).
These features were mapped from the aerial photograph as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. (7-8)

<1> PPS 48 1982 513 (B Philp) (OS Card Reference). SKE48605.

<2> PPS 46 1980 353 (B Philp and D Garrod) (OS Card Reference). SKE48604.

<3> Brit 13 1982 393-395 (NB Rankov) (OS Card Reference). SKE38309.

<4> Kent Arch Rev 74 1983 82 (B Philp) (OS Card Reference). SKE45817.

<5> Kent Arch Rev 77 1984 161 (B Philp and J Willson) (OS Card Reference). SKE45827.

<6> Oxford Archaeological Unit, Feb 1995, East Thames Corridor archaeological study: archaeological framework for Thames Gateway. Draft report (Bibliographic reference). SWX9336.

<7> Vertical aerial photograph reference number (Photograph). SKE54274.

<8> Vertical aerial photograph reference number (Photograph). SKE54275.

Sources and further reading