A Road Through the Past Archaeological Discoveries on the Pepperhill to Cobham A2 rchaeological excavations Background to along the route of the A2 APepperhill to Cobham Widening the discoveries Scheme, near Gravesend in Kent, have uncovered a rich archaeological landscape reaching back 10,000 years. The discoveries include a sensational series of rich burials dating to around the time of the Roman conquest, which are amongst the finest ever found in Britain. Important evidence for prehistoric and medieval settlement was also found.
The excavations were carried out by Oxford Archaeology, working for Skanska on the £122 million Highways Agency scheme. Archaeological fieldwork was carried out over eleven months from September 2006. Analysis of the findings is being carried out and a detailed report will be published in early 2010. This booklet presents highlights of the findings to date.
The main area of archaeological investigation runs for nearly 3 km between Pepperhill Junction and Marling Cross Junction. It traverses two raised plateaux divided by a dry valley at Tollgate Junction (A227 Wrotham Road). Smaller-scale excavations were Photograph taken in 1922 during construction of an earlier version of the A2 showing the surface also carried out prior to the construction of Roman Watling Street (courtesy of Kent of two new drainage ponds adjacent to Archive Service, Centre for Kentish Studies) Cobham Services.
Essex
Greater Ebbsfleet London Station River Thames GRAVESEND SWANSCOMBE NORTHFLEET
Surrey
Kent
GRAVESEND Finshed course of West Sussex East Sussex Channel Tunnel Rail Link
Area shown on timeline below
New A2
B262 HIGHAM Old A2 Tollgate Junction Marling Cross
d Settlement at
a o
R Cobham services
n ISTEAD RISE r
a
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A227Wrotham Road Late Iron Age boundary
New Downs Road Pepperhill Junction Line of new A2
Saxon building
Channel Tunnel Rail Link
TIMELINE Stonehenge
End of last Introduction of ‘Beaker’ people - First Ice Age farming and pottery first metal users farmsteads
MESOLITHIC NEOLITHIC EARLY BRONZE AGE LATER BRONZE AGE 10,000-4000 BC 4000-2400 BC 2400-1500 BC 1500-800 BC Coldharbour Lane
Iron Age Roman enclosure village Cobbled (west) Early Iron road Iron Age village Later Bronze Age settlement Late Iron (east) Age settlement Age burials
High status Beaker pit Medieval village burials
Introduction Introduction Wheel-made Roman of iron to of coinage pottery conquest Britain to Britain of Britain LATER BRONZE AGE EARLY IRON AGE MIDDLE IRON AGE LATE IRON AGE ROMANO-BRITISH 1500-800 BC 800-400 BC 400-100 BC 100 BC-AD 43 AD 43-410 Mid Kent Golf Course
This booklet describes the discoveries from the earliest to latest in time, and the timeline gives a different colour to each time period. The edges of the pages of the book are coloured to show where to find details of the discoveries of each period. Archaeological features are shown coloured according to their age on the foldout plan. More detailed plans are included in each section. The areas investigated are shown as a grey tone, and areas investigated during the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link alongside in light brown. All the objects in the booklet were found during the excavations, unless stated otherwise.
Singlewell Old A2
Tollgate Junction Later Bronze Age Early Iron Age enclosure settlement
Neolithic mortuary enclosure
Roman Angles and Saxons Battle of Tudors World War II conquest settle in Britain Hastings 1939-45 of Britain ROMANO-BRITISH SAXON MEDIEVAL POST-MEDIEVAL AD 43-410 AD 410-1066 AD 1066-1485 AD 1485-2000 A metal detector survey was also Archaeological carried out, and produced a few Roman fieldwork: coins and a medieval silver penny. These surveys confirmed that there discovering the past had been ancient settlement along the road corridor, though they gave no indication that dense archaeology would be found. The A2 excavation began by removing the topsoil along the entire route. This revealed archaeological features such as ancient pits and ditches cut into the natural geology, which were then carefully excavated by hand. Stripping the whole route showed that the extent and importance of the archaeology along the route was much greater than had been expected, and provided a unique opportunity to see how the history Iron Age curving arlier excavations for the of the area had evolved over time. enclosure ditches Channel Tunnel Rail Link and pits revealed E(CTRL), which runs just to the by topsoil stripping, south of the A2, uncovered a series showing the darker and of ancient settlements, some of deeper feature fills which continued north of the railway. This suggested that archaeology would also be found within the new road corridor. Before excavation began, surveys were carried out to help determine what we might expect. This included examination of cropmarks , a geophysical survey , and a field walking survey . Cropmarks Cropmarks appear when the crops New Downs Road are ripening. Crops grow taller, and ripen more slowly, over ancient filled-in ditches and pits where the soil is deeper, appearing as darker Line of new road lines or areas in the yellowing crop from the air. Aerial photographs covering the new road route revealed a variety of archaeological features, including a very large Channel Tunnel Rail Link ditch at the west end of the route. Geophysical anomalies Geophysical survey was carried out using a magnetometer, which measures magnetic variations in the ground. The soils filling buried pits and ditches often include charcoal, fired clay and topsoil, and so give a different magnetic signal, like the ditch continuing south-east on the line of the large ditch seen as a cropmark. On this site cropmarks and geophysical survey complemented one another, but neither gave the full picture of the archaeological features revealed during Archaeological features excavation (see plan to the right). Major boundary ditches The field walking survey involved teams of archaeologists systematically walking across ploughed fields, collecting ancient objects brought to the surface by the plough. Finds included prehistoric flint tools and Field boundaries pieces of Roman and medieval pottery. Curving enclosure ditches including bones, wood or charcoal, Dating plant matter, leather, textiles, and even Mesolithic charred food from cooking pots. All (8000- methods living things contain carbon, which 4000BC) comes in different forms, or isotopes. he shape, decoration and After the death of the animal or plant, method of manufacture one isotope changes into another at a of many objects such as known rate, so by measuring the ratio Early Neolithic T flint arrowheads and pottery the time since death can be obtained. (4000- changed over Cremations west of 3300BC) time, so they Tollgate Junction were can be dated. dated to the Bronze Age Changes may using this method. have been prompted by Optically Stimulated different prey, Luminescence (OSL) by new foods or works when fine silts that drinks, or the way contain sand grains form they were in ditches and are buried prepared by later fills. The sand and eaten. grains are exposed to a Coins are laser beam, producing particularly a ‘luminescence’ signal. Sampling soil for OSL dating Later useful as they The strength of this Neolithic generally carry an image of the signal can be used to estimate when (3300-2400BC) ruler and can therefore be tied the sediment was last exposed to down to a fairly short period. sunlight or in other words, the date when it was buried. This method proved Early Bronze Scientific dating methods are that the enclosure east of Tollgate Age (2400- also used. Radiocarbon dating Junction dates to the 1500BC) is the best known and can be Bronze Age (1700 used on any organic material, - 1300 BC).
Arrowheads through time (those Coin of Commodus on the right are not from the A2) (AD 180-192) and using whatever other resources Hunter- nature offered: fish, berries, nuts and roots. Their belongings were few and gatherers portable, and almost all were made of organic materials like wood, leather 10,000–4000 BC and plants. These only occasionally survive in wet, waterlogged conditions, uring the last Ice Age it was too but on dry land they are unlikely to cold for people to live in Britain. be preserved and only their flint tools DOnce the climate warmed survive. They made arrows, spears and plants, animals and people began to harpoons of wood with multiple small return. The environment changed from flint barbs glued in, and it is these barbs tundra to coniferous forest and then to a that survive, along with straight-bladed mixed deciduous woodland (oak, hazel, cutting edges for butchery and axes elm, ash and lime). The people were for cutting wood for shelters and tools. hunter-gatherers, who did not cultivate crops or keep animals. The country was Large numbers of flints accumulate almost all woodland, except for small where a group lived for a season. settlement clearings. These people did On the A2 we only found a few flints, not build permanent homes but moved suggesting these were left by hunting around a large territory following game or foraging parties passing through.
Mesolithic core, blades and microliths The first monuments were built during this period, such as communal tombs The first like Little Kits Coty near Maidstone. The new route of the A2 was designed to farmers: Neolithic avoid a rectangular Neolithic enclosure which had been discovered during and Early Bronze Age CTRL investigations. Other enclosures like this contained burials covered 4000–1500 BC by a mound. Groups of postholes found close by may have been used rom around 4000 BC, people to support platforms on which to began to grow cereals and herd expose the dead before burial. Flivestock to supplement hunting and gathering, but still followed a semi- Burial monuments became focal points mobile way of life as the seasonsseasonons for the scscatteredat Neolithic changed. The first potteryottery fafamilies,mi where and new kinds of groundund seseasonal ceremonies stone tools were introduced.roduced. fofor the birth of lambs or calves,c planting and Pits from a short-livedd ththee harvest would be Neolithic settlement cacarried out, marriages Ground granite axe were found east of mamade, deaths imported from Cornwall Tollgate Junction; cocommemoratedmm and one contained a flint goods bartbartereder or exchanged. leaf-shaped arrowhead dating from 4000-3300 BC. Another pit with flints A pit found west of Tollgate contained dating after 3000 BC was found fragments from eleven different ‘Beaker’ close by, showing repeated visits pots dating from around 2200 BC, the by local Neolithic people. The most Early Bronze Age. Enough survived of impressive find was a ground granite five of these to reconstruct a mix of fine axe head imported from Cornwall, decorated drinking cups and thicker which demonstrates the far-flung food preparation vessels. This was contacts of the first farmers. This close to a grave containing Beakers axe had been rediscovered in the found during the CTRL excavations, Iron Age and buried in a pit (see and may indicate a contemporary Iron Age Farming and Ritual). settlementse tt le me and cemetery,etery, or the burial of smasheds ma pots (togetherether with flflintin t toolsto ol and the remainsmains of fofood)od ) duduring ceremoniesonies held to cocommemoratemm the ancestors.
ReconstructionRe co nstr uc ti on ooff a seselectionle ction of the Beaker pots from a single pit
Four-post structures: platforms for exposing the dead ?
Neolithic mortuary enclosure ditch
A rereconstructionco ns of platforms for exposing the dedead,ad, wiwith the mortuary enclosure as a mound in theth e babackgroundck Just within the Settling down: entrance was the base of the later Bronze Age a very large charred timber 1500–800 BC post, possibly a ‘totem pole’. uring the Bronze Age much The enclosure of the woodland was cleared also contained a small oval Dfor grazing. From around Ramped posthole for 1500 BC, areas became divided up ‘totem pole’, with bottom house marked by by fields and paddocks, or dotted with of charred post (half-dug) a ring of posts, farmsteads and hamlets. and a group of People gradually large shallow pits, abandoned mobile probably outdoor hunting and herding for a working areas. more settled way of life. Totem pole ? Two small Middle Roundhouse ? Bronze Age settlement enclosures, probably farmsteads, were found occupying high Enclosure ditch, ground either side of Entrance looking south the valley at Tollgate Junction and Hollows with Gullies about 1.5 km apart. Both settlements finds were surrounded by deep ditches on their south and west sides, perhaps dug for banks to provide shelter from Middle Bronze Age enclosure the wind, and by shallower gullies Cobbling ditches to the east. A trackway paved with flint nodules passed alongside the Trackway eastern enclosure. Dating of the ditch sediments suggests that the enclosure Eastern Bronze was dug around 1500 BC. Age settlement Reconstruction of the eastern settlement looking west The western settlement enclosure was located 200 metres south of a Bronze Age trackway and paddocks found during separate investigations carried out at Coldharbour Road. A group of cremation burials was found alongside a fence outside the enclosure. Finds from the settlement included pottery, flint tools and bone awls for leather or textile working, and fired clay slabs from ovens. Postholes forming possible roundhouse from the eastern enclosure At the western end of the route an isolated pit contained a large pot, which in turn contained a small pottery cup Large pit
and cremated sheep and pig bone. Paddock Coldharbour Lane Hazelnuts had also been burnt on the cremation pyre. Human cremations in Trackway pots are common, but animals without ditches human bones are very unusual. Old A2
Bronze Age Pits and cremations postholes
Bone awls for leather-working Fence lines Western Bronze Age settlement Middle Bronze Age enclosure ditch built in a way that left Farming and few traces, or they could have lain outside ritual: the Early and the road corridor. Middle Iron Age Many of the Iron Age storage pits contained 800–100 BC whole objects interpreted as ritual Saddle-shaped quernstone ‘offerings’, placed rable agriculture expanded within the pit once across southern England during it had passed out the Iron Age. Clusters of deep A of use. These may circular Iron Age pits occurred all have been gifts to along the A2 route, and some had the gods, to give layers of charred grain at the bottom. thanks for a good Experiments have demonstrated that harvest, or to ask pits were an effective method for for a better one. storing seed corn. There were also These offerings many small square buildings supported included whole by four timber posts, like the granaries pots, querns and and temporary storehouses still used loomweights, in eastern Europe until 50 years ago. layers of charred Using raised storehouses helped keep Iron Age pit with smashed pots cereal grain, piglets grain dry and free from vermin. No and red deer antlers and dwelling houses were found, although skulls. Another offering these may have been was a Neolithic granite axe head which had been Triangular placed in a pit alongside an loom weights iron gouge. This must have been a strange and magical object to the Iron Age people who found it at least 2500 years after it was made. Human
Early Iron Age storage jar from the pit bones were also found in some pits, Abundant finds from the ditches Linch pin in use but only one whole skeleton. During and pits provide a detailed picture this period, it was a common practice of everyday life in the Iron Age. The to expose the dead to the elements pottery included large, coarse jars and then retain some of their bones as used for storage and cooking, and relics or talismans. more finely made One of the bowls and cups used pits containing for serving food and human bone Broken chalk drink. Triangular bricks also contained a weight of fired clay were raven skeleton. used as weights for These birds were looms and thatch, regarded as Whole pot Linch pin and grain was ground special because upside-down into flour on large of their role as stone slabs known carrion animals Linch pin, pot and chalk as saddle querns. in the funeral weight on pit base process. As the A2 is several kilometres from the Thames estuary, we were surprised The dispersed Iron Age to find evidence for salt production. settlements came together at the west Salt was important both for seasoning of Tollgate Junction during the Middle food and for preserving meat. Brine Iron Age (400 BC onwards). A series or wet salt ‘sludge’ was brought of ditched enclosures was constructed from the brackish tidal creeks of the west of a cobbled road, with an open Thames estuary to the north. This area containing pits and four-post was poured into ceramic trays, which Iron Age cobbled road structures to the east. were propped on clay pedestals and Some of these enclosures heated on hearths to evaporate the were circular or curving, water, leaving dry salt cakes. These and may have surrounded were packed in rough clay vessels roundhouses. The for transport to other sites. Large cobbled trackway was quantities of broken salt-making up to eight metres wide, vessels were found along the route. and is a rare example of road construction before the Roman period. One of the most Banjo-shaped Pits with ritual Cobbled road Ditched enclosure offerings enclosures unusual finds Trackway ditches was an iron linchpin from a Late Iron Age cart or chariot, high status placed within burials Shaft a pit alongside a complete Ditched upside-down pot. Four-post Pit with whole Four-post enclosures This rare object granaries pot and iron linch granaries Enclosure possibly pin would originally around roundhouse have secured the wheels of the vehicle to the axle. Made as a straight pin with Channel Tunnel Rail Link a looped head, the other end was hammered Middle Iron Age settlement into a curve once west of Tollgate Junction slotted through the axle, to ensure it could not come out.
Half-excavated pit Salt-making showing layers of charred pedestal remains and fired clay The settlement west of Tollgate The first high- Junction continued to thrive, with ditched enclosures on both sides status burials: of the cobbled road. Pits for grain storage and rituals continued to be dug the Late Iron Age throughout this period. One shaft was over 4 m deep; this could have been a well, or perhaps a deeper version of 100 BC–AD 43 the pits used for making offerings to the gods. Along the edge of the dry valley at Downs he Roman Road a large deep conquest boundary ditch Tof Gaul was dug, and (modern France) smaller ditches Potin coin brought traders running down the and Mediterranean valley slope from goods to Britain, it probably marked and military fields belonging expeditions led to the late Iron by Julius Caesar Age settlement. landed in Kent in 55 and 54 BC. Wheel-thrown Caesar wrote pottery now Triangular and rectangular about Gaul appears chalk weights and Britain; from him we learn the alongside hand-made vessels, and names of tribes and their chieftains, the range of types grows, perhaps some of whom ruled land on reflecting more variety in the diet. both sides of the Channel. So-called ‘safety-pin’ brooches New customs and burial rites also become much more common, appeared, similar to those indicating a change in clothing. in northern France, and for the first time in Iron Age Six coins made of tin-rich bronze Britain rich burials appear. (known as potin) came from pits in the main settlement. Coins of this kind are the earliest made in Britain, dating from 150–0 BC. The coins were moulded in strips, and so have straight edges on the sides where they were snapped off. They are marked with stylised designs imitating coins made on the Continent. It is still hotly debated whether these coins were used like money today, or (as they were not very common) for special purposes such as marriage payments (dowries), or as religious offerings. As they were found with whole pots and other whole objects, it is unlikely that those along the A2 were chance losses.
One pit contained a pair of chalk weights, which appear to be unique to this site in Iron Age Kent. These weights may have come from a loom for weaving cloth, or perhaps helped weigh down thatch on a roof. Three unfinished examples came from other pits.
A pair of cremation burials with rich offerings was discovered in an enclosure west of the road. One of the burials included two pottery jars and two cups, six brooches, four of bronze or brass, two of which were joined by a finely-made chain, and two others of These graves iron. These were in a wooden container. show that the In the second burial, the ashes were settlement west of contained in a bucket made of staves Tollgate Junction of yew wood bound with highly polished included a family and decorated bronze strips. There of wealth and were also two pottery jars and a influence, possibly polished bronze cylinder, possibly part linked to the of a metal and antler cup. Decorated temple complex buckets have been found in other high- founded during X-ray of brooches status Late Iron Age graves in Kent, the Late Iron Age and chain at sometimes with bronze jugs or ladles; Springhead, the head these were probably used to hold beer of the River or other alcoholic drinks. Together the Ebbsfleet, 2 bucket and cup may represent a British km to the Reconstruction of drinking set. north-west. pots from the grave with brooches Reconstruction of the bucket (upper part conjectured)
Below: X-ray of cup and bucket and detail of decorated bronze plate gathering in the Bronze Environmental Age, as do hazelnuts evidence in the Iron Age. Together, study of rchaeological excavation is not animal bones and plant just about finds and buildings. remains can provide ARecovering plant and animal a detailed picture of diet remains is also very important. and what cultural taboos existed. For example, Iron Animal bones provide Age communities in Britain evidence for the wild generally avoided fish or animals hunted for shellfish, but along the food or skins (red and A2 cod and herring bones roe deer and wild cat in and some mussel shells the Iron Age) and for the were found in Iron Age pits, livestock kept by farming communities showing that local people were (cattle, sheep and pigs). The sex fishing and collecting shellfish from the of the animals, and their age when Thames estuary. Woodland snails killed, reflects whether the animals were kept Charcoal and charred for meat or for milk. Wild weed seeds provide animals can also tell us evidence of trees and about the environment; plants around the site. wild cats, for instance, Different species of snails live in woods. Seeds, fruit favour different conditions, pips and nuts survive less such as marshland, open often, but grain, peas and pasture, or woodland, so the Disturbed ground snail beans were all charred proportions of these found in the medieval ovens. in the soil samples tell us To retrieve these, bucket- what the local environment sized soil samples are dissolved in was like. This technique shows that the water so that plant remains float to the Bronze Age enclosures were created surface and can be captured in a fine in grazed grassland, and that a hedge Grazed grassland snail mesh. Charred plum stones indicate then grew alongside the ditches. ports at Dover and Richborough. The New overlords: Anglo-Saxons later named it Watling Street, and later still it became the A2. the Early Roman period The road passed through the religious centre at Springhead, which developed AD 43–250 a cluster of temples with a market, and extensive cemeteries on its outskirts. n AD 43, the Roman army landed in Kent to conquer Britain. The Around the time of the conquest, the Iconquest brought Britain into a Iron Age settlement shifted east to vast empire stretching as far as North a new group of rectangular ditched Africa and the Middle East. Roads were enclosures overlooking Watling Street built and towns founded. People had at Tollgate Junction. The abandoned greater access settlement became Enclosure fields. Only the to manufactured Cobham ditches goods and imports Service northern part of from overseas. Station Entrance the new settlement North While many lay within the people would road corridor. The Whole pots southern edge of have resented in ditch the conquest, the settlement was Samian bowl decorated Well excavated during at least at first, (A2) Watling with animal scenes from the CTRL work, the Tollgate enclosure others were keen Street Hearth to adopt Roman but the central ways. Local section has not government was run by been investigated. A further settlement trusted native aristocrats was also founded around this time 3 km who embraced the further east at Cobham Services. imperial system and came to think of Postholes from a large timber building themselves as Roman. were found within the Tollgate enclosure at the very edge of the A new main road investigations, indicating that the was constructed from buildings lay in the unexcavated area London to the channel to the south. The pottery included vessels with a glossy red finish, known Quarries Ditched as Samian ware, that was imported New A2 from France. The large numbers of Principal garden plots fine vessels with elaborate moulded Dump of burial pit Shaft decoration at the Tollgate enclosure Samian are unusual, suggesting that wealthy, pottery and glass high-status people lived here. Other Beaker pit Cobbled finds from the settlement included part North-west Postholes working hollow of a glass vessel. So, did the high- cemetery of timber Not excavated status family that lived in the Late Iron building Ditches visible Age settlement maintain a position of as cropmarks power and influence after the Roman conquest? This was confirmed in a Enclosure ditches spectacular fashion by the discovery of the first high-status Roman burial. Channel Tunnel Rail Link
Springhead temple
Roman cemetery 200 m Height above sea level complex Settlement Roman temple N at Wingfield Bank Roman course of the River Ebbsfleet Watling Street (to Rochester) Walled Roman features Cemetery 0 m
Settlement and Pepperhill New A2 cemetery at Tollgate Cemetery Fields Cemetery at Down’s Road
Channel Tunnel
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8888 Early Roman settlements Rail Link and cemeteries around Springhead large and highly-decorated brooch. The The high-status brooch may have fastened a Roman burials bag containing the ashes. Thirteen pottery ithin the north-eastern part vessels, mostly fine of the Tollgate enclosure cups and dishes Gaming board Wwas a large pit about 2 m imported from France, handles, counters square. When one half of the pit was were found close together and dice (on excavated little was found, until a in a square halfway modern pair of brass handles with degraded up the grave fill. Just board) wood attached was uncovered at below were horizontal the very bottom. Twenty- lines of decorated bronze two glass counters – 10 strips and tacks, and it white and 12 blue – were seems that the pots had found nearby, along with been placed standing on two dice made from antler, a wooden table, which the remains of a gaming had decayed leaving only its set. This is one of only decorative metal fittings (see section 20 or so Roman gaming on Conservation of the graves for sets found in Britain. more details). The pots could have contained food, As other gaming sets though if so all had been found in rich traces had gone. burials, it was with great On the bottom of excitement that the the grave around second half of the pit was the table were excavated. Cremated four more pots human remains were – two large wine found at the base of flagons, a beaker the pit, accompanied for drinking beer, by a spectacular array and a large platter. of objects. The cremated ashes themselves were found in the south- Provisional reconstruction west corner of the grave, next to a of grave and offerings Brooch
Cremation
Pig Position of gaming board
Highly decorated Above: the burial pit bronze brooch, under excavation probably imported Below: Laser scan taken for 3D reconstruction Some of the pots were stamped on the base with the maker’s name. One of these potters, Benio (sometimes Binio), was working in the Marne valley in France before the conquest of Britain. The local clays used for his stamped pots in the grave show that he had established a workshop in North Kent near Upchurch by AD 50; similar platters suggest a batch made specially for the burial. Benio was one of the founders of the Upchurch pottery industry that supplied Kent through most of the Roman period. One of the flagons had letters Two-handled flagon, painted on, perhaps to identify the with painted letteringng contents, and another had scrawled graffiti. The flagons were locally made, so this is important evidence for the ability to read and write very soon after the Romans came.
Three-footed Graffiti - perhaps a signature ? wine mixing bowl from Italy, and are very similar to examples found at Pompeii.
Placed between the bronze vessels and the gaming set were the head and forelegs of a pig. Iron Age graves sometimes contain a pig or sheep, perhaps food for the next life, but the Three bronze vessels were also found Romans also sacrificed pigs to near the table: a large wine mixing Ceres, goddess of the underworld, bowl, a jug (ewer) and a pan (patera). at burial. The finds from the grave show The mixing-bowl was decorated with that it dates to the first generation after vine leaves and a line of eyes, and a the Roman conquest, c. AD 43–70. small pottery beaker was found inside. Female head at the They were probably used for preparing bottom of the jug handle and serving food or drink at feasts. The jug handle had a woman’s head at the top, and a larger head at the base, while TopTo p of handle in the form of a woman’s head the handle of the pan Bronze jug (the handle was decorated with a was made separately ram’s head. Similar and soldered jug and pan on, but has sets are often come apart) depicted on Roman coins and altars, and were used for ritual washing at funerals, and for pouring offerings to the gods. All three of the bronze vessels were imports his burial stood Skeleton in coffin with hobnail boots alone within the main and coin in mouth Tenclosure. Seven more burials were found Cemetery enclosure ditch in a smaller enclosure at Cremation with 14 the north-western edge of the settlement. Two of pots and Pots cosmetic box these were also high-status cremations in square pits, Cremation again dating to just after the Inhumation in box with Cremation glass bottle conquest. One had a similar and mirror bronze jug and pan set, and also a folding board with Cremation Destroyed bronze hinges, although this in pot by Post- time there were no counters. Inhumation medieval There were fourteen pots, denehole again including fine dishes, Main cups and beakers, and two enclosure wine flagons. There was ditch no wine-mixer, but instead a decorated Samian bowl may have served the same purpose.
A further remarkable find was a bronze- bound box containing a small bronze spatula. A bronze-sheathed stone palette lay next to the box, and together these objects could have formed a set for mixing cosmetics. Similar boxes from the Continent contained medicine pills and jewellery. Pig bones show Small beaker found inside the that pork joints were also placed in wine mixing bowl the grave. Again, the cremated ashes in the first grave were found with a brooch that may have fastened an enclosing bag. Detail of woman’s head at base of handle
Jug from the second grave (left) Detail of he other high-status burial ram’s head contained the ashes of a woman. from the TNails and bronze fittings indicate pan handle that the cremation lay within a wooden box the full width of the grave. Two pottery plates stood on edge along the line of the nails, suggesting they had been leant up against the Hinge edge of the box. Other Cosmetic offerings included a palette square bronze mirror Animal Beaker for beer bone with a patterned leather Gaming board backing, a wooden Wine flagons casket held together by lines of bronze tacks and Ewer (jug) decorated with bronze drop handles and rings, a glass perfume bottle and a pottery Patera beaker, a cup and another plate. (pan) Samian bowl Below left: Cosmetic SamianSa bowl with unique Dishes limestone palette with gegeranium decoration bronze spatula The three people buried in these high- status graves were likely to be pro- Roman aristocrats. Either they were wealthy enough to buy these exotic imports, or they received them as gifts, the rewards of loyalty.
They had adopted a Roman lifestyle, central to which were new ways of dining, including the use of elaborate table sets, and drinking wine. Feasts would be provided for important guests, when board games might be played. Aristocratic appearances were maintained through personal presentation and hygiene (shown by the cosmetic set and perfume bottle), and by the Roman furniture (the ornamented table and casket). X-ray from the second burial in the north-west cemetery, showing a plate on edge surrounded by rings, a handle and bronze tacks part of the excavation team. Metal Recording and objects were coated with a special wax to prevent them decaying on conserving the exposure to the air, and complex objects were lifted in soil blocks for high-status excavation off site in the laboratory.
The blocks were x- burials rayed to reveal the objects contained within them, before Right: Detail of decorative 3-D record they were carefully tacks in soil block was made excavated. of the Below: Recording the A A special arm objects in the largest grave while positions of the tacks in connected to a computer was used still in the ground by laser scanning. 3D with the to create a detailed 3D record of the This can be used to create a digital arm position of the objects within each reconstruction of the grave later. block. This method was particularly In order to protect the fragile useful for recording the bronze and valuable objects tacks and strips of the table from found in the graves, the first grave, providing valuable a conservator information on how this piece of became a full-time furniture might have looked.
One view of the computer-generated plot of the table decoration Coating the pots with plaster before lifting
Protecting the tacks with wax before lifting Wrapping the Samian bowl before lifting
Provisional reconstruction of the table Most organic materials such as wood, leather and cloth decay soon after burial, but contact with metal objects sometimes preserves them. The decorated plates on the Iron Age bucket had yew wood preserved behind them, and the wood preserved in the handles of the Roman gaming board was sweet chestnut. More often the impressions of wood grain, straw or textiles are preserved in the corrosion that builds up on the metal surfaces and can be identified under the microscope; this has shown that the wine-mixing bowl and the adjacent pan sat on straw, and that the bowl Detail of straw was covered by a woven cloth. impressions under the ram’s head Pan from the first grave.
Painstaking work will now be needed to conserve the objects from the graves, ensuring their long-term preservation for future study and display.
Top of mixing bowl and detail of textile impressions on the handle X-ray of brooch, compartmentalised box, spatula, cosmetic palette and its metal sheath with the excavated objects Coffin and Later Roman Adult hobnail boots crouched burials burial
ive much simpler graves also came from the north-western Fcemetery. Two of these contained cremations. These ranged in date from Infant AD 70-100 to AD 250-275, later than the high-status cremations. Most of Major late Iron these burials contained only a few pots, Age boundary or no grave goods at all. The exception ditch (still was the latest burial, which had been partly open) placed in a wooden coffin identified from the surviving iron nails. Three Cremation pots had been placed at the waist and a pair of finely-patterned hobnailed Adult with shoes upside-down at the feet. A whole pot coin of AD 260–296 was found in the mouth, as payment for the ferryman Early Roman pot from who was thought to carry the souls of the grave in the end the dead across the River Styx to the of the ditch afterworld. These later burials suggest either that the wealthy family living west of Tollgate had declined in fortunes, or buried their dead elsewhere.
Finely patterned hobnailed shoes and coffin nails second Roman cemetery was found to the west, near to Downs A Roman A Road, within and alongside the Multiple boundary ditch dug in the Iron Age. goddess? grave The burials date from AD 100-400, and included adult men and women, n interesting object found Hobnail children and between the Tollgate settlement boots Coffin infants. Only Aand the Downs Road cemetery and pots one person was is the lower part (legs and feet) of a cremated; some pottery figurine. Roman figurines like others had iron this usually represented the goddess coffin nails. Venus, and are often found One grave at temples and other contained religious sites. They two men may alternatively have and an infant, perhaps successive been representations of generations. The burials from this the Lares, personal or Crouched cemetery had few grave goods: household gods, whose burial hobnails from shoes came from images were often kept a few, two graves contained in a shrine at home. pots, and one a Most were made decorated harness of white-fired clay ring. The cemetery and were imported was probably used by from the continent, local farm-workers. but this example is orange and may have Pottery feet from been locally the A2. The body made. is from a figurine from Oxfordshire
Crouched Iron Age burial, perhaps buried at the end when the boundary ditch was dug Settlement A chain of large stone forts was built around the coast at this time, part of shift: the Late Roman a reorganisation of defence backed by highly mobile rapid-response units. period AD 250–410 Whether this was a response to the start of Saxon raiding from Germany, he Tollgate settlement and or internal fighting between would- cemetery seems to have been be Roman emperors (Britain had its Tabandoned during the later own emperor for part of this time), third century AD, around 130 years the abandonment of the Tollgate before the end of Roman rule in settlement was probably linked to a Britain. No evidence for late Roman reorganisation of the local landscape settlement was found elsewhere and economy to centralise population along the route. The third century in more defensible groups and AD seems to have been a time of supply the forts and the military. disruption elsewhere in west Kent, with many farms and villages going into decline or being abandoned, along with the town of Springhead.
In contrast, large villas at Cobham to the east and Northfleet to the north flourished in the late Roman period. These luxurious dwellings with their large barns were probably the centres of agricultural estates; recent excavation at Northfleet has shown that agricultural production increased dramatically in the third century. Just west of Downs Road on the CTRL, a large Roman corndrier Late Roman ‘crossbow’ was built for the large-scale processing brooch from the of grain in the Late Roman period. Tollgate enclosure An Anglo-Saxon
Posthole building Posthole AD 410–700
n the fifth century AD Roman rule collapsed and new settlers arrived Iin Kent. Written sources record migrations of Angles and Saxons from Half-excavated Saxon Germany and Jutes from Denmark. New it has also been suggested that the building. Note the buildings, styles of dress and jewellery, area below ground was ventilation for posthole on the right and a return to handmade pottery a suspended wooden floor at ground show these links to northern Europe. level, creating a dry environment for storage. On the A2, ploughing has A lone Anglo-Saxon building was found destroyed the surrounding ground close to Downs Road. The rectangular surface and, with what evidence floor area was dug out half a metre we have, either is possible. below ground, and the roof was supported on a large post in the middle of either end. Pottery from the building dates to the 5th to 7th centuries AD.
Sometimes sunken floors were worn by trampling, so are interpreted as part-underground workshops for crafts such as weaving, with low walls and sloping roofs (see reconstruction). There was little wear on the floor of the A2 example, and Sunken-floored building with oven Medieval rural Bonfire kiln AD 1000–1400 Quarries or life dene holes
hree medieval settlements were Hollow-way found along the road corridor. TAt the western end part of a settlement dating to AD 1050-1200 was Pits uncovered alongside Downs Road, Post-built Sunken- Slot-built Pot in next to a timber hall found on the line buildings floored building ground of the CTRL. About 700 metres to the buildings east, near Tollgate Junction, a series of Silver ‘longcross’ penny Sunken-floored ditched plots containing buildings was building with oven of King Edward I laid out either side of a sunken track or ‘hollow way’. This hamlet, which began in c. AD 1100 and lasted to c. AD 1300, also extended into the line of the CTRL. A series of paddocks, a building, pits and a pond dating from AD 1050-1250 was found alongside Watling Street Channel Tunnel Rail Link further east at Cobham Services.
All three settlements contained unusual warming the dough, the larger for buildingsbuil with sunken floors. Although baking the bread. But in the Tollgate commonco mm in Saxon times, only a few hamlet, at least five of these buildings Selected pottery from the medievalme di buildings of this kind have were found, some without ovens. It is Medieval settlements previously been found, almost all more likely that some were kitchens in Kent. Some contain a (which because of the risk of fire large and a smaller were usually separate buildings) hearth or oven side and others workshops. In the hamlet by side, and have buildings constructed with posts, and been interpreted others with narrow slots forming a as bakeries, the rectangle, probably held the timbers smaller oven for of larger rectangular houses. The people in these settlements were mainly involved in farming. Enclo- They grew cereals, peas and sure beans and raised cattle, sheep, ditch pigs and chickens (chicken bones and eggshells were found). Oyster, mussel and cockle shells came from the Thames estuary, and cod and herring bones from Kentish fishing ports. The pottery was a mixture of local wares and imports such as Thetford Ware from Oven from a sunken- East Anglia. floored building
Reconstruction of a sunken-floored bakery Cobham (A2) Watling Service South of Singlewell the skeletons of Station south Street Pond a pregnant sow, a dog and a horse were found together in a pit dated to the fifteenth century. It is unusual Sunken-floored Stone Enclosure ditches to find animals of different species building wall together, and as the horse had been butchered, the pit was probably not Pits Oven dug to bury diseased animals. Perhaps this is an example of medieval pagan superstition, or even witchcraft. Hearth ?
Pits Tree holes
An unusual circular stone, probably made from imported French limestone, had holes on either side suggesting it may have been a mechanically- driven quern or a grindstone for sharpening tools. There were also smallsm al whetstones made from the locallo ca Kentish Ragstone. There is little Grindstone showing holes indicationin di ca that the people were wealthy; for attaching turning arm onlyon ly a single coin was found, a silver pennype nnynn of Edward I (1272–1307). Detail from the medieval Life of Alexander, showing a grindstone in use (courtesy of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, MS Bodl.264 fol 113V) As this historic map shows, none of Horse Dog these medieval settlements survived into post-medieval times; all were abandoned before or during the 14th century AD. What caused this Piglets settlement shift is still uncertain; the early 14th century was a time of crisissis Extract from Hasted’s Pig in England, with crop failures and 1896 map of the famine between 1315 and 1325, but Hundred of Shamel Multiple animal burial south of Singlewell there may have been other local factorsct or s and Totlingtrough that led people to move their homes.s. (Courtesy of Kent Archive Service, Centre for Kentish Studies)
Watling Street (Old A2)
Downs Road
TollgateTo
Cobham Services Line of new A2 Multiple animal burial Site of medieval settlement (deserted) was cheap, and good farmland was The recent at a premium, it made sense to dig a narrow shaft rather than an open- landscape cast quarry. Farmers also believed that chalk quarried from underground AD 1400–2000 seams made better fertiliser than chalk gathered from the surface. n recent centuries, the land crossed by the road corridor has mainly During the Second World War an anti- Ibeen used as farmland. A series aircraft battery and army camp of shafts 3-5 m deep found along the was built at Northumberland route are ‘deneholes’ or ‘chalk wells’, Bottom, just south of the new almost exclusive to north Kent and road near Tollgate Junction. We south Essex, and once an important know that the camp part of the local rural economy. Some was targeted by air have vertical shafts and bell out raids, as a scatter of Denehole exposed west into a larger chamber at the bottom; German incendiary of Tollgate with a sloping others have ramps or sloping tunnels bombs was found tunnel leading down to leading down to a vertical shaft. during the excavation the start of a vertical shaft just north of the camp.
Deneholes were dug Superimposed fragments during the Middle of incendiary bombs beside Ages up until the early an intact example 19th century, but by the late 19th century Finding out more their purpose had mostly been forgotten. The final results of the archaeological work on the They were mostly dug A2 will be published in an academic monograph. for chalk to spread For more about other finds in the area, see on arable fields as Tracks and Traces. The archaeology of the Channel fertiliser. The chalk Tunnel Rail Link, Oxford Wessex Archaeology. could also be used as building stone, or The Archaeology of Kent to AD 800 edited by burnt to produce lime John H. Williams (Kent County Council). for mortar. As labour Acknowledgements We would also like to thank Shorne Wood Country Park for the use of their facilities for the public exhibition in May 2007.
Tim Allen and Lucy Martin of Oxford Archaeology project- Archaeological research on the discoveries is still in managed and designed this publication for Skanska on behalf progress, and we would also like to thank all the specialists of the Highways Agency. Trevor Sharpe, Project Director, and who have contributed information to this report, and Gary Rogerson, Environmental Manager, commented on the in particular conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown. images and edited the text; Phil Cheesmur, the Highways Agency Project Manager, reviewed the publication. Unless otherwise stated, all pictures and illustrations are the copyright of the Highways Agency. We would like The archaeological fieldwork was carried out by Oxford to thank the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, for Archaeology. The dedication and professionalism of all permission to reproduce an image from the Romance the archaeologists who worked as part of the site teams of Alexander (MS Bodl. 264 fol 113V), and Kent Archive is gratefully acknowledged. Specific thanks are extended Service, Centre for Kentish Studies for permission to Director Bob Williams, to Project Manager Tim Allen, to reproduce their copy of the map of the Hundred of assisted by Ros O’Maolduin, and to Mike Donnelly Totlingtrough and Shamel from Hasted’s History of Kent. and Guy Cockin for running the fieldwork on site.
The background map to the timeline is reproduced from We would like to thank Skanska for facilitating the archaeological Ordnance Survey material with the permission of Ordnance work. Special thanks are due to Gary Rogerson for his Survey on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery role in co-ordinating the archaeological fieldwork with the Office © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction construction programme, ably assisted by Georgina Hammond infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or of Amey Consulting. We would also like to thank John Jones civil proceedings. Highways Agency 100018928 2008. (Excavation) Ltd who stripped the site in advance of fieldwork.
Tim Allen and Leo Webley wrote the text, Magda Wachnik The archaeology programme has and Lucy Martin photographed and drew the finds, been monitored by Rob Bourn of For information about current Julia Moxham drew the maps, Mark Gridley drew the CGMS acting for the Highways excavations and research by reconstructed scenes and Peter Lorimer created the Agency, advised by Kent County Oxford Archaeology, visit: computer-generated reconstructions of the finds. Council Heritage Conservation. www.thehumanjourney.net From KCC we would like in The Archaeology of the A2 Pepperhill to Cobham Scheme particular to thank Simon is designed and published by Oxford Archaeology. Mason, Lis Dyson and Andrew Richardson.
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