British Archaeology, no 9, November 1995: News

A wealth of unusual and important archaeological discoveries dating from the Bronze Age, Roman and other periods has been found on the Isle of Thanet in Kent. The discoveries include some of the earliest metalwork and personal ornaments known in Britain, and a unique type of Roman village which may have belonged to Germanic immigrants in the 2nd century AD.

The discoveries were made during complete excavation of a 2.5km road at Monkton. Excavation of the full length of a road is itself a rare event, but was permitted in this case by Kent County Council, on the advice of the County Archaeologist, because of the richness of the area's archaeology.

The Early Bronze Age personal ornaments consist of two bronze bracelets and a necklace of over 200 well-made jet beads, found in `Beaker burial' graves - inhumation burials containing Beaker pottery - dating from c 2000-1700BC. In all, seven such burials were found at the site. Beaker burials are generally found under barrows, but these were in graves, possibly with plank linings, indicating an unusual local custom. The skeletons in the graves had survived.

In addition, traces of three Middle Bronze Age barrow cemeteries, dating from c 1800-1100BC, were identified by the existence of `ring ditches' that had once surrounded the barrows. A possible ceremonial way - marked by a line of 18 large post-holes - led to the largest grave, which was surrounded by a double ring ditch over 40m across, and which probably belonged to an important local leader. In one ring ditch, a piece of Trevisker Ware pottery from south-western England was found, suggesting the existence of maritime trade along the English Channel at c 1350BC, approximately the same date as the Bronze Age boat found recently at Dover.

The Roman village, of a type unique in Britain, was found to contain more than 20 houses dug about a metre into the ground, dated by pottery to the 2nd century AD but very similar in style to Anglo-Saxon settlements of the 4th century.

According to Paul Bennett, Director of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust (which conducted the excavation, assisted by the Trust for Thanet Archaeology), it could have belonged to a party of immigrants from the Rhineland who clung to their native customs for a generation before being assimilated into the wider Romano-British population. The village, surrounded by hollow-ways (or tracks), seems to have survived only about 50 years; and finds include bill-hooks, shears, spindle-whorls and querns, providing evidence for farming and weaving.

Other finds at Monkton include a 2nd century Roman shrine, a small 7th century Anglo-Saxon cemetery, and a 12th century farmstead with possible evidence for the very early use of cruck timbers.

Traces of an early Neolithic farmstead have been discovered at Cowie, near Stirling. The farmstead, with related outbuildings, is seen as a find of major importance because Neolithic settlements are rare anywhere in Britain and almost non-existent in mainland Scotland.

The farmstead, dated by pottery to c 3000BC, consists of a close grouping of two houses and six small outbuildings - not all of which were standing at the same time. Associated pits contained a variety of domestic rubbish, including pottery, stone blades, quernstones and charred grain, providing evidence of farming. The stone blades, made of pitchstone, were probably brought from the Isle of Arran, the nearest known pitchstone source, giving possible evidence of trade.

The extreme rarity of Neolithic settlements in Britain has long been something of a mystery; but it could be explained if most Neolithic structures were as flimsy as those at Cowie, according to the excavator, John Atkinson of the Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD). The buildings appear to have been constructed out of thin stakes rather than solid posts, with the intervening walls resting on the ground in a shallow trench. `These are hugely ephemeral buildings, which certainly wouldn't show up on air photography,' he said.

The houses, however, had sophisticated entrances, constructed out of an arrangement of solid posts. According to Mr Atkinson, these could have been door-frames - a feature practically unknown in Neolithic houses elsewhere.

A cottage that could be the oldest complete surviving vernacular building in Scotland has been discovered in Grantown-on-Spey, Highland. The timber-framed cottage, which could date from the 17th century, was carefully taken apart by archaeologists from GUARD, and will be reconstructed elsewhere in the town.

The cottage is the only known example of a post-and-beam structure in Scotland - a type of building once common, made of a series of posts linked by cross-beams, forming a rectangular frame. The next oldest surviving vernacular buildings in Scotland are stone cottages from the 18th century.

The remains of at least one and possibly two prehistoric timber bridges have been found across a former channel of the Thames at Boveney near Eton. Only one bridge has been fully excavated, and it seems to date from the 1st millennium BC.

The remains consist of the bases of the bridge's oak legs, running right across the channel in groups of four, and deeply embedded in waterlogged silt. The bridge<%0> was some 50m long, but only 2m wide, suggesting it was a footbridge. No traces of the tops of the timbers have been found.

Upright timbers from what seems to be a second bridge lie a short distance upstream. This bridge has been dated by pottery to the late Bronze Age, but the timbers will not be fully investigated until next year. Both bridges were found by the Oxford Archaeological Unit directed by Tim Allen, during the first season of work on a Thames riverbank project which is set to run for six years.

The footbridge was provisionally dated to the 1st millennium BC by the depth of silt around the timbers, and by the presence of late prehistoric pottery in a hole on the river bank, which seems to have been dug to remove an obstacle in the bridge's path during construction. The timbers were also covered by layers of silt containing Roman pottery, strongly suggesting the bridge had long disappeared by the Roman period. The provisional dating will be checked and refined, however, by dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating.

The bridge is similar - both in size and grouping of timbers - to a Bronze Age structure on the Thames at Wallingford, found by the Oxford Unit in the mid-1980s. The Wallingford structure, however, was only partially excavated, and it was not traced all the way across the river. As a result, it was not clear whether it was a bridge or merely a jetty.

Other discoveries at Boveney this summer include a Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age settlement which contains undisturbed evidence of flint-knapping, including imperfect, discarded leaf-shaped arrowheads; a Neolithic beaver lodge, including the skeleton of a beaver; and the side of a Roman wooden cart.

Dry-stone walls

Ironworks saved

Roman theatres

The 2nd-3rd century amphitheatre was found at Catterick, former Cataractonium, in North Yorkshire by the West Yorkshire Archaeology Service, during excavations in a gravel quarry. About 130m across, it was surrounded by a stone bank 40m thick which appears to have had wooden seating on top. Whether it was principally a civilian structure, suggesting a high level of Romanisation in the area, or an army structure designed for training troops, is unclear.

The second theatre was found by Dominic Powlesland, a freelance archaeologist, on a hillside at West Heslerton north-east of York. Set in a deep hollow, it contains a series of parallel horizontal slots that suggest seating. Next to it stood a stone building with a tiled roof, set on a terrace and dated by a coin to after 337. It has been interpreted as a possible shrine to the deity of a nearby spring.

NEWS is compiled by Simon Denison.