EVENT_NAME,EVENT_CODE,EVENT_TYPE,CONTRACTOR,DATE,GRID (NGR),PROJECT,COUNTY,DISTRICT,PARISH,SMR,SITE_TYPE,PERIOD:,METHOD:,PHASING:,ENVIRO:,FINDS:,GEOLOGY:,CONTEXT_NUM:,THREAT:,SAMPLE:,SUMMARY:,ARCHIVE:,ACC_NUM:
North of Saltwood Tunnel,ARC SLT98C,Excavation,Canterbury Archaeological Trust Ltd.,00/05/99 - 00/08/99,157410 369470,,Kent,Shepway,Saltwood,,"Round barrow, inhumation cemetery (extended inhumations), and cremations.","BA, IA, RO?, EM, MD","The topsoil and subsoil were removed by machine.    Inhumations were 100% excavated by hand.   Linear and curvi-linear features were excavated 10%-100% by hand, and postholes and pits excavated 50%-100% by hand.  An Archaeological Watching Brief was also undertaken between May and September 2000 in an area immediately to the south of the initial excavation.",Not determned,"Little environmenal data was recovered.   The Late Bronze Age pit contained much carbonised cereal grains and chaff, peas, beans and burnt bone.   The burials contained little other than grave goods.","The artefactual remains fall into two groups; the Prehistoric ceramics and lithics, and the objects recovered from the cemetery of the Early Anglo-Saxon period.   The bulk consists of pottery sherds (3052) and struck flints (383), with smaller quantities of daub (124), stone (103, of which 30 were burnt flint) and glass fragments (42).   Ceramic building material is relatively sparce (49) comprising Roman tile (22), Medieval roof tile (11), Post-Medieval roof tile (4) and Post-Medieval brick.   Small quantities of Prehistoric ceramics from the fills of the ring ditch, dating the feature to the Bronze Age; most of the sherds being small and abraded and few diagnostic.   The worked flint assemblage, also recovered from the ring ditch, includes flakes, knapping debris and a hammerstone.   Along with the quantity of retouched and utilised artefacts, this suggests that flint-working was taking place in the area, and that some form of domestic activities took place on site.   A total of 582 small finds have been recovered from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery, the vast majority retrieved from the graves.   Many are made of iron, although there are also quantities of glass beads and objects of copper alloy.   There are no items of precious metal, except for the silver sword pommel in grave 7.   The weaponry includes swords, shields, spears , angons and arrowheads.   Almost identical Coptic bowls were discovered in graves 5 and 7, the former also providing the only coins retrieved from the cemetery.   Other artefacts identified include finger rings, buckles, chatelains, keys and several iron and copper alloy objects.   Mineralised textile remains are visible on a number of the iron objects, and several small fragments of desicated textile have also been recorded.   Six graves included ceramic vessels, all of which have been made in local fabrics, in a range of forms.   All of the objects are of Early Anglo-Saxon date and they can be assigned to the period ca.AD550-675.   The survival of human remains were generally very poor.   Elements of bodies were retrieved from four burials and in seventeen further graves the remains of tooth crown were found.","Typical Argillic Brown Earth soils (Fyfield 2 soil series) above sandy Humo-Ferril Podzols (Shirrell Heath 2 soil series) developed on sandy Folkestone Beds.   Recent agriculture has transformed the upper horizons into a homogenised brown plough soil.   These soils are well-drained and prone to water erosion.   The upper soils have slightly alkaline values (pH 7) while the underlying Shirrel Heath podzols have very cidic values (pH 3) - this accounts for the very poor bone preservation.   These soils are prone to leaching with distinct panning of Fe and Al minerals.   The downward leaching of humus and clay minerals is very distinct - producing thin, roughly horizontal layers (humic laminae).",1551,"Development.   Construction of, and works associated with, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.",20,"Excavations to the North of Saltwood Tunnel, east of the settlement of Iron Age and Roman date, produced evidence for an Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery, which lay over a prehistoric ring ditch.   The ring ditch was penannular in form, with an entrance at the north-east.   In a later phase its causeway had been blocked by a narrow secondary ditch.   Ceramics and lithics recovered from the fills of the ring ditch suggest that the monument is of Bronze Age date.   The lithics suggest that knapping and domestic activity took place within the general area of the ring ditch.   An Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery was located over and beyond the ring ditch.   Sixty-three graves of Early Anglo-Saxon date were identified, extending in date from c.AD 550-675.   The graves include two elaborate ""princely"" burials, as well as fifteen other weapon graves.   Coptic bowls were found in both of the ""princely graves"".   Female grave goods include beads, bracelets, finger rings, keys and chatelaines.   Knives were identified in 28 of the graves.   Six graves included ceramic vessels, all of which have been made in local fabrics, in a range of forms.   Bone survival was generally poor and human skeletal remains were only recovered from a few of the graves.   One of the burials was that of a horse, interred without any grave goods.   There were single examples of cist graves, chamber graves and burial within a hollowed section of a tree, as well as traces of five coffins.   From the grave goods alone, it can be suggested that seventeen of the burials included males, and eight were those of females.   The relative sizes of the graves and the range of grave goods, suggests that both adults and juveniles were buried in the cemetery.  A continuation of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery was excavated to south under watching brief conditions, this revealed a further 34 inhumation burials - including two more high-status ""princely graves"".  Also present in this area was a large posthole complex, suggesting the pressence of at least one large structure of possible Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age date","Canterbury Archaeological Trust Ltd, 92a Broad Street, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 2LU.             ",










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