Autumn 2002/54
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newnewKE N TA RC H A E ssO LO ll eG e I C At t LS tt O ee C I E rr T Y Issu e num ber 54 Autum n 2002 ‘T H EB O N EYA R D ’ In side 2-3 APR E L I M I N A RY NO T EO NE X C AVAT I O N SATT E M P L E HILL, DARTF O R D New books & CDs everal phases of excava- ably early in date and include Library Notes tions have recently been Gaulish S am ian, Highgate W ood 4-5 com pleted by H ertfo rd - products, U pch u rch Fine Reduced Lectures, Events, sh ire Archaeological Trust Ware and North Kent Fine Conferen ces & at St Edm und’s C h u rch , Reduced W are. Several sh erd s Courses Tem ple Hill, Dartford. The w ere reco vered fro m secu rely 6-7 area com m ands w ide dated Saxon con texts, su ggesting The place nam e view s over the tow n an d sur- that the material was deliberately Riverhead and its rou n d ing countryside and w as collected by later occu pan ts on fig 1 implica tions extensively built up w ith subur- the site. 8-9 ban housing in the post-w ar peri- Th e S axon assem blage is by od. Th e ch u rch w as con stru cted in far the most significan t, com prising part Notice Board 1955, and is now in the process of being of an inhum ation cem etery with associ- 10-11 reb u ilt and redeveloped on a larger ated ceram ics and other rem ains. Forty- ‘Id ea s & Id ea ls’ scale. A ccording to local residents, the five bodies w e re reco v ere d in total, Henry V III’s site has been know n for som e years as th o u g h th e u n d e rlying free-draining Reform ation ‘The Bone Yard’, su ggesting that scat- geology m eant that few were well-p re- 12-13 te re d a rch a e o logical rem ains w ere served . D esp ite the fact that over half Easter evacu ation found during the initial developm ent in the skeletons w ere less than 25% com - at Teynham the 1950s and during later, more recen t plete, important observation s m ay still Object Loans building work nearby. be m ade. S everal w ere su rro u n d ed b y Newsletter Guidelines An initial evaluation by Project sh allow , horse-shoe shaped enclosures Officer Wesley Keir revealed significan t or circu lar ditch es, which clearly Christmas Lunch quantities of ceram ics an d h u m an defined these individuals as being of 14-15 bone, and consequently an expanded exceptional status. Post-h o les may also Letters to the Editor investigation w as undertaken by indicate the presence of grave m arkers The W ychurst Project Project Officer Dan Hounsell to cover a or stru ctures over the graves. Several YA C activities wider area. Post-excavation analysis is were furnish ed w ith g ra ve g o o d s, 16 still at an early stage, but several fig 2 th ou g h con serva tion is still being Dr Joan Thirsk important observations can alread y b e undertaken and their nature and signif- Above: Fig 1: A ccessory vessels (h eight of the made. largest 120m m with a diam eter of 90mm) icance has not yet been con sidered. The key area of archaeological fea- and fig 2: fem ale burial cradling infant. Am ong th e associated finds, two small tures com prised a dense palim psest of but well-preserved accessory vessels ditch es and pits, though several lines of pottery derived fro m a single pit fea- (fig 1) help to establish a gen eral con - post-h o les were also identified and may ture, w here 847 sh erd s form the frag - text for the group in the 5th or 6th cen - yet prove to be the rem ains of dw ellings mented rem ains of approximately fif- tury. Three quarters of the bodies were or timber stru ctures. Most of the asso- teen com plete or sem i-co m p lete Iron adults and most appear to have been in ciated ceram ic evidence is of hand- A ge vessels in excellen t con d ition. a good state of physical and dental m ad e coarsew ares, which immediately Other finds fro m the period include a health, though the fem ales had slightly creates difficu lty in identification. num ber of heavy clay loom w eights, poorer teeth. Tw o of the burials were of Given the nature of the local clay, sepa- su ggesting some minor industrial fem ale adults with infant ch ildren. One rating Anglo-Saxon fabrics fro m earlier activity in the immediate vicinity. ch ild was cradled in the left arm (fig 2), Iro n A g e types is still problem atical, By con trast, Rom an material was while a second infant had been laid though analysis su ggests that flint and ephem eral and poorly represen ted. across the low er legs of the deceased. sh ell-tem pered fabrics are gen erally of The sm all am ount of pottery recov- The stature of this sm all sam ple was of prehistoric date and those with a quartz ered w as abraded and apparen tly base of Saxon origin. A lmost half the residual. These are, how ever invari- Continued on page 2 Autum n 2002 www.kentarchaeology.org.uk 1 con tinues from page 1. particu lar interest. O verall, the m en were generally of a similar height to the m odern population, while the wom en w ere m ark ed ly shorter, with no appar- ent overlap betw een the two. S imilar sam ples from comparative sites have su ggested that the m ales and fem ales BOOKS & may have different migratory origins, and Dartford may also reflect a hetero- LIBRARIES geneous population. BOOKS & At such an early stage, the post- e xcavation analysis h as posed m ore LIBRARIES questions than can yet be answ ered, but BOOKS & the site is clearly one of great interest LIBRARIES which w ill benefit fro m further, more detailed analysis. BOOKS & Dr L ee Prosser, Section of the plan, showing one of the Saxon burials surrounded by a circu lar ditch , with LIBRARIES Hertfordshire Archaeological Trust a line of post-holes interpreted as the rem ains of a stru cture. BOOKS & LIBRARIES BOOKS & tow n at the time of its con stru ction. This Ti m b e r-F ram ed B u ildings and N atural LIBRARIES New Books book traces the history of these stru ctures, History. Illustrated throughout in colour fro m the origins of the first pier back in and b& w. BOOKS & East Kent Pa r i s h e s– David W r i g h t 1831 through to the present day rem ains of Available fro m the Albion Bookshop, LIBRARIES £17.50 inland, £18.00 overseas su rface, the third pier, which is but a sad reflection 13 Mercery Lane, Canterbury CT1 2JJ (p & p £20.50 airm ail. 0-9517580-1-2 of form er glories. Illustrated throughout £1.60 extra) tel: 01227 768631 BOOKS & The cu lmination of 30 years’ work by a with old photographs, sk etch es and docu- em ail: Albionbookshop@ com puserve.com LIBRARIES research er with deep local know ledge, this ments. BOOKS & second ed ition, com pletely Available fro m P ierhead Publications rew ritten a n d reset, is an Ltd, PO Box 145, Herne Bay CT6 8G Y (p & p LIBRARIES indispensable gu ide to the 50p extra) tel: 01227 370971 fax: 01227 New C D BOOKS & Archives at Canterbury and 370972 or fro m the Herne Bay Museum or The History of Sevenoaks to 1650 Jean Maidstone. Includes an th e V isitor Centre at the Central Fox FBCS, C.Eng LIBRARIES historical intro d u ction to Bandstand. 0-9543-3190-7 UK price £14.99 inc post BOOKS & th e D iocese of & VAT Canterbury with its The Blean ~ Th e W oodlands of a A new CD-Rom. Supported by appen- LIBRARIES jurisdiction s an d Cathedral City – E d ited b y W i l l i a m dices, glossary an d bibliography, this tells BOOKS & parish es; descrip- Holmes and Alexander Wheaten on behalf how the tow n and surrounding area devel- LIBRARIES tions and locations of the Blean R esearch G roup, Canterbury. oped fro m early times to the Civil War. of several dozen £12.00 In cluded on the disc are: BOOKS & classes of reco rd s; For a thousand years Blean has been ~ tran scripts of the hundred su rviving LIBRARIES detailed studies the secon d biggest con cen tration of w ood- Sevenoaks w ills an d tran scripts of another of parish registers land in Kent after the Weald. It has am ple 600 w ills fro m th e su rro u n d ing area w ith BOOKS & and B T’s w ith all know n evidence of prehistoric an d details of many of the fam ilies LIBRARIES copies; a bibliography; all know n Rom an settlem ent and field sys- ~ a searchable database of 19,000 NW Kentish indexes; a m aster tem s but differs from many Kent wills fro m before 1650.