Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

An Iron Age cemetery found beneath Roman villa during extensive excavations. Many finds were retrieved including jewellery and domestic goods.

Monument Types

• CEMETERY (CEMETERY, Iron Age - 800 BC to 42 AD)

Associated Finds

• (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• BRACELET (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• BROOCH (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• BROOCH (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• BROOCH (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• POT (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• POT (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• POT (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• POT (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• POT (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• POT (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• POT (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• POT (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)
• RING (Late Iron Age - 100 BC to 42 AD)

Full description

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TR 24073700. Belgic cemetery, Folkestone. Excavations at the Roman Villa (TR 23 NW 11) by S E Winbolt in 1924, revealed an underlying pre-Roman cemetery. Eight cinerary urns, three apparently of Belgic ware, one bitumen-coated and one containing a child's bangles, were discovered. (1) TR 240370. East Wear Bay, Folkestone. Obscure reports indicate between four and nine pottery vessels, all probably associated with cremations, were found beneath a Roman villa during its excavation in 1924, although only three are illustrated; (4) a biconical jar, biconical bowl and small curved-sided bowl. The first two vessles also contained respectively a Nauheim-like brooch and an Aylesford brooch. A fourth vessel, of unknown form, contained a silver braceletand bronze ring. A further silver Aylesford brooch (TR 23 NW 110) found on the beach below the cliff on which the cemetery lay may come from another burial. (2) East Wear Bay, Roman site. In April 1924 four urns were found between two corridor walls of Roman construction, but in the gault clay below the level of the wall-footings. One was in many fragments and so restoration was impossible. All four were of very poor material, thin and brittle and of a brown sandy texture. The other three which contained earth and burnt bone fragments, were restored at Folkestone Museum. They were probably of local British manufacture. One contained a silver brooch, another a bronze brooch. near the broken pot, a silver armlet and bronze ring were found. Three other British burial urns, one with a foot ring, (4) were found in August 1924, but all broken. One of them contained a human tooth, a small piece of greenish glass shaped as for insertion in a ring and a minute grey flint implement. These finds plus coins found near the site in 1865 show that the British were "c.50 BC -AD 50 much under Roman and other continental influences". (3) (6) The site on which the villa was built had been occupied in the pre-Roman period; seven British urns dating to the first half of the 1st century AD were found between two corridor walls, but below the wall footings. No doubt they belonged to a pre-Roman cemetery which was unknown to the builders of the villa. (5) East Wear Bay, Folkestone. A cemetery was found during the excavationof a Roman villa in 1924. Published accounts claim variously the between five and nine urns were found and that two of these each contained a fragmentary brooch. The precise location of the urns is not shown on any plan. It appears that brooches were found only forty feet away from the cliff edge and may be from the same cemetery as the brooch found on the shore (TR 23 NW 110). (6-11)

Southern Water Services, 1993, Dover & Folkestone Wastewater Treatment scheme Environmental Statement (Unpublished document). SKE6815.

Southern Water Services, 1993, Dover & Folkestone Wastewater Treatment scheme Environmental Statement (Unpublished document). SKe6815.

<1> JRS 16 1926 240 (M V Taylor R G Collingwood) (OS Card Reference). SKE45052.

<2> Burial Practices in IA Brit 2 1981 381-382 (R Whimster) (OS Card Reference). SKE38432.

<3> Antiq J 5 1925 64-67 (S E Winbolt) (OS Card Reference). SKE33250.

<4> Archaeologia 90 1944 175 (J B Ward Perkins) (OS Card Reference). SKE37322.

<5> VCH 3 1932 114 (M V Taylor) (OS Card Reference). SKE50807.

<6> Arch Cant 37 1925 209 (S E Winbolt) (OS Card Reference). SKE35056.

<7> Probs in Econ & Social Arch (ed G de Sieveking I H Longworth E Wilson) 1976 405-6 (I Stead) (OS Card Reference). SKE48706.

<8> Arch Cant 38 1926 49 (S E Winbolt) (OS Card Reference). SKE35062.

<9> Probs of IA in S Brit (ed S S Frere) 1961 164 204 (D F Allen) (OS Card Reference). SKE48708.

<10> Ro Folkestone 1925 30-31 79-80 112 (S E Winbolt) (OS Card Reference). SKE49269.

<11> JRS 14 1924 242 (R G Collingwood M V Taylor) (OS Card Reference). SKE45044.

Sources and further reading

Related records