Pepper Hill, Southfleet, Kent - Integrated Site Report
Oxford Archaeology (South), 2009. (updated 2017) https://doi.org/10.5284/1044800. How to cite using this DOI
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This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Primary contact
Stuart
Foreman
Senior Project Manager
Oxford Archaeology (South)
Janus House
Osney Mead
Oxford
OX2 0ES
UK
Tel: 01865 263800
Fax: 01865 793496
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 2354
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1044800
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
From 1997 to 1998 Oxford Archaeology undertook an archaeological investigation at Pepper Hill, Southfleet in Kent on behalf of Union Railways South (Limited) ahead of construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. The site lay south of the Roman town and religious complex at Springhead (Vagniacis). Excavation revealed almost the entire plan of a Roman-period cemetery which developed alongside a road that took inhabitants, pilgrims and other traffic into the town. A total of 558 graves or other funerary-related features were encountered.
The cemetery was located at a site previously used for burial in the middle Iron Age. At least one grave belonged to that time. No burials were certainly made during the late Iron Age, though quarry pits and a boundary ditch record activity dating before the Roman conquest. The site received the greatest number of burials during the early Roman period (AD 43-130). The rate of burial declined during the 2nd century and, by the 3rd century, few graves were dug. The latest burials comprise a group of five dating after AD 260; given the fortunes of the neighbouring town, none is likely to date far into the 4th century. The site was abandoned after the Roman period until medieval times when quarrying and agricultural activity began.
The fieldwork events covered by this report are:
- Pepper Hill (ARC PHL97) - Excavation
- New Barn Road (ARC NBR98) - Excavation
