Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Excavations uncovered evidence for early Iron Age occupation at Richborough. Several ditches were found with pottery and there may have been a palisade. Coin evidence also suggests settlement in the area in the first century BC. The site was originally an island in the Wantsum Channel which separated the Isle of Thanet from the rest of Kent; it silted up during the Medieval period

Monument Types

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

Full description

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Early Iron Age occupation at Richborough consisted of patches of a slightly mottled-brown sandy soil. Several ditches were found,one ofwhich measured 6ft 6 ins deep and 10 ft 3 in wide. The pottery fromthis ditch had died out by C75 B.C. (see illustration card no 1). (1) Coin and pottery evidence suggest the use of Richborough Harbour in the first century BC, at an earlier date than the excavator suggested. (2) Magnetometer, resistivity and magnetic susceptibitilty surveys undertaken over a 18.7ha area, at Richborough, Kent. The magnetometer survey revealed a complex pattern of settlement activity, roadways and enclosures. Ribbon development along Watling Street accounted for a greater density of readings in that area, whereas weaker responses seem to be associated with an outlying field system. The limit of the settlement was not defined, so further survey work is recommended(3).

<1> Soc of Ants Res Rept 16 Excavs Richborough Ro Fort 4 1949 8-11 plans (J P Bushe-Fox) (OS Card Reference). SKE49498.

<2> BAR Supl Ser 11 Beginings of Urban in Barbarian Europe 1976 236 (W Rodwell) (OS Card Reference). SKE37596.

<3> English Heritage, 2001, Richborough, Kent: Report on Geophysical Surveys, September 2001 (Unpublished document). SKE13689.

Sources and further reading