pract archeo winter 2009 archaeology 10.pdf · villa of the papyri was found buried just outside...

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C O N T E N T S

‘Practical Archaeology’ is published by The Kent Archaeological Field School,School Farm Oast, Graveney Road, Faversham, Kent, ME13 8UP.

Views and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy of the KAFS. Copyright, the authors (text) andKAFS (typography and layout) AD 2004.

The cover picture of a mosaic shows the winning team of a chariot race held in the Circus Maximus inRome. The four-horsed chariot and driver with an attendant holding a palm leaf, the emblem of victory,

are about to make a triumphal lap in front of 250,000 spectators.The Circus Maximus occupied the whole length of the valley between the Palatine and Aventine Hills. It wasRome’s oldest and largest public space reputed to have been founded by the first kings in the 6th century BC.

The oldest and most important event held there were the Roman Games (Ludi Romani) held annually for fifteen days in September in honour of Jupiter the Best and Greatest.

Visit monuments like this and see archaeological areas not usually open to the public with Dr Paul Wilkinson on KAFS Field Trips.

Picture credits: With thanks to all picture suppliers including: 3 BBC Books; 4, 5 Italian Tourist Board; 6 Trier Museum; 10. 11, 13 PortableAntiquities Scheme; 14, 15 Trustees of the British Museum; 23 English Heritage; 24, 25 Tempus Books;

30, 31 Bath Tourist Board; 31 Newcastle upon Tyne Tourist Authority.

First WordsPAGES 2-3

NewsPAGES 4-5

Field School ReviewsPAGES 6-24

KAFS ReportsPAGE 25

SWAT Archaeology ReviewPAGES 26–27

Field School Courses PAGES 28-32

Booking FormPAGE 33

Membership FormPAGE 34

Pract Archeo Winter 2009 1/11/09 4:17 PM

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F I R S T W O R D S

Welcome tothe tenthyear of the

KAFS, the tenth copyof PracticalArchaeology and the

tenth season of coursesheld at the KAFS. We

have come a long way,and grown from twelve

members on our opening Saturday to the 823members today.

In this issue we look back over the last decadeto review our achievements so far.

Our first course on Archaeological Field Surveywas held on September 5th 1998 with Lucy Kirkfrom Archaeology South-East, and attended bytwenty four people.

Our second course held on September 19th wason Field-walking and Map Analysis and twentyeight people came.

The next course held on October 3rd was onIron Age and Roman Pottery and we closed thebookings at fifty people. It was obvious by thenthat there was a tremendous demand from peoplewho wanted to enjoy all aspects of ourprogramme of practical archaeology.

That year the oast building was stillundergoing rebuild and restoration, the publictoilets were outside and water had not yet beenconnected, the roof also needed to be tiled, butthe seeds of a successful enterprise had beensown and the next ten years saw a tremendousgrowth with students of all ages and from allparts of the world attending courses at the FieldSchool.

In particular we have forged good links withthe Universities of Southampton, Leicester,Nottingham and Birbeck College. A recentdevelopment is our involvement with theUniversity of Texas which will enable ourstudents to dig at Oplontis in coming years.

The archaeological sites we have investigatedover the years have been spectacular, and rangefrom an octagonal Roman bath-house at BaxFarm, a Roman villa at Deerton Street, the Romantown called Durolevum at Syndale Park, the

medieval Archbishops’ Palace at Teynham, theRoman barn at Hog Brook with associatedbuildings, the Roman theatre and complex ofbuildings at Blacklands, and the Romanhexagonal feature with associated Anglo-Saxoncemetery at Bridge.

With the expansion of the Field School camethe opportunity to devise archaeological tours inconnection with BBC History Magazine, History

Today, and Minerva. These tours have proved sopopular that we now run a sister company called‘Roman Holidays’ with Thomson Holidays (TUI).

A recent development is the self-travel longweekends away for students with prices forexample for three days in Split exploringDiocletions Palace starting at £150, whilst otherwonderful sites start at £199. I look forward toseeing you in 2009.

Paul Wilkinson

The first day of the FieldSchool on September 5th 1998.The successful formula wasalready in place with amorning of lectures followed by

practical demonstrations ofsurvey in the field.Here students are training withLucy Kirk (left) fromArchaeology SouthEast.


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Issue No. 10 Spring 2009

F I R S T W O R D S

Good books on archaeology areessential to understand the subjectand with a previous background in

design it has been possible to start asuccessful publishing programme. Our firstbook on archaeology has turned out to be abest-seller with thousands of copies sold. Itprobably helps that respected archaeologistslike Mick Aston and Francis Pryor endorsedthe book. Our first ‘Archaeological Guide’ willbe on Pompeii where we have excellentrelations with the curators.

“A very useful basicintroduction toarchaeology”

Mick Aston


has now been replicated in California, USA by JPaul Getty. The villa is one of the mostsumptuous yet found in the area. It was situatedon a rectangular plateau just above the Bay ofNaples: Below, on the beach, was a small dock forboats. The main house was surrounded bygardens, terraces, walkways, pools, andfountains. Weber and his excavators had retrievedover ninety pieces of sculpture, the largestcollection ever found. A large basin of a fountainhad thirteen bronze panthers spurting water fromtheir mouths. Outside, the main garden hadwondrous views of the Bay of Naples. In thecentre of the garden was a walkway built out ofsixty-five columns. The gardens abounded with

statues of bronze deer,Greek women,wrestlers, Pan, the“Drunken Faun” and“Hermes Resting”. Butscattered over the floorof one of the roomswere papyrus scrollsand wax tablets. Thiswell may be the realtreasure of the villa; forhidden away in a smallroom were rows uponrows of woodenshelves stacked withthousands of books.The problem was howto read them; they werebadly scorched andvery fragile. In 1753Father Antonio Piaggio,a specialist in old

manuscripts, arrived from Rome. He looked atthe disastrous attempts made to unravel thetightly wound scrolls, and decided to build aspecial machine to unwind the brittle books. Ittook four years to achieve the unrolling of justthree books. By the mid 19th century some 341had been unrolled with 195 deciphered andpublished. Many hundreds still needed to beunrolled and deciphered. Recently Americanscientists have developed a new system ofreading ancient manuscripts using digitaltechnology. These remastered works can then be

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The exploration of the Villa of the Papyri atHerculaneum was started in 1752.Excavation ended in 1765. Its location was

half-forgotten until 1986 when archaeologistsentered it for the first time in 221 years.

The Swiss architect Karl Weber had drawndetailed plans when working with Alcubierre inthe 1750s. Alcubierre, the site director, hadproblems working with Weber; because Alcubierrewas after precious objects, he was not interested inrecording or even preserving Herculaneum. Hisparties of local diggers, called the “cavamonti”,burrowed through walls decorated with paintings,hacked through mosaics, cut through doors, all tofind valuable objects. Weber wanted to record,draw plans andexcavate in a moreconsidered manner.

He had his chancewhen the sumptuousVilla of the Papyri wasfound buried justoutside the town ofHerculaneum. Weberspent years in tunnelsexploring andrecording the edificeuntil 1765 when thetunnels were sealedbecause lethal carbonicgas began to filter intothem.

All the tunnels ofHerculaneum wereabandoned, filled withrubbish, becamedangerous and the sitewas abandoned. It was left in such an unstablecondition that the ground fell in and the villadisappeared from view.

Fortunately Karl Weber had made a detaileddrawing, which revealed that the villa wasoriginally an atrium-style farmhouse. Later, itincorporated an extensive peristyle with gardensand pools, and a belvedere at the end of apromenade overlooking the sea. Weber’s plan ofthe Villa of the Papyri is the only plan to havesurvived of these early excavations atHerculaneum and it was so good that the complex

N E W SVilla of Papyri- saving the library

In 1754 excavators found 1,787badly scorched rolls of papyrusat the villa. It was the firstancient library ever found. The

virtual reality reconstruction(above) shows the librarybeing packed on the eve of theeruption of Vesuvius in AD 79.


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read by scholars such as the Scandinavianclassicist Professor Knut Kleve, who believes thatthe development of this technology is the mostimportant advance in the archaeological world fordecades. It will mean the opportunity will exist toread the recovered Roman papyri from the villa.These are known to include lost works ofAristotle, scientific works by Archimedes,mathematical treatises by Euclid, philosophicalwork by Epicuras, lost sections of Virgil’s‘Juvenilia’, comedies by Terence, tragedies bySeneca and works by the Roman poets Ennivs,Accius, Catullus, Gallus, Macer and Varus. Initialresults on the material suggest the villa wasowned by Calpurnius Piso, the father–in-law of

Julius Caesar, as some of the books were writtenby Philodemus, the teacher of Virgil and in-housephilosopher of Piso. Work has recently stoppedand the programme of decipherment is now atrisk whilst flooding threatens the rest of theburied villa and library.

Eight of the world’s leading scholars of ancienthistory wrote to The Times in 2002 demandingaction and have now formed The HerculaneumSociety (www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk) which aims

N E W S

The Villa of the Papyristretched for at least 800feet along an escarpmentoverlooking the Bay ofNaples. Stairs and terracesled up from the beach andprivate harbour to theatrium which had beenrebuilt into a largeentrance hall. In the centrewas a marble pool andfountain surrounded byeleven statues. A wallniche held another basin inwhich thirteen bronzepanthers spurted waterfrom their mouths.


In 2009 the KAFShave been invitedby the University of

Texas to participate inan archaeologicalinvestigation of asimilar magnificentRoman maritime villaprobably owned by thefamily of the Emperor

Nero at Oplontis which is close to Pompeii.For further information see our web site:www.kafs.co.uk It will be essential to bookearly as places are limited.

to raise $20m to start excavating and recover thelibrary for future generations. The site wasopened to the public four years ago, but has nowbeen closed again so that archaeologists can digout the frescoed corridor or cryptoportico on thelower ground floor. They are also conservingmosaics and frescoes already found on the topfloor to protect them from damp and erosion.

“Work can resume because we are combiningarchaeology with responsible conservation, whichwas not the case in the 1990s,” said AndrewWallace-Hadrill, head of the HerculaneumConservation Project, which is funded by thePackard Humanities Institute to the tune of $3million (£1.5 million) a year.


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Our first report in2001 presentedthe finding of

trial excavations atDeerton Street. Thework was carried outduring August 1999 bystudents from the KAFSand archaeologystudents from the

Institute of Archaeology, London, assisted byexperienced ‘diggers’ from local archaeologicalgroups in east and west Kent. In all, some 98 students and helpers were on siteover a ten-day period.

As far as the author is aware no recent work hasbeen carried out on the site, which was previouslyunknown, apart from possible amateur digging in1872.

Internal features identified were bounded bysubstantial stone Roman walling covering an areaof about 60 by 80 square metres. The Roman villais sited on the west bank of a spring and facessouth-east. On the east bank of Hog Brook wewould uncover a Roman barn, and to the south ofthe spring building debris suggests further Romanbuildings; A small ‘Roman villa’ was reported tohave been grubbed up and destroyed by thefarmer in 1920. The villa excavated in 1999 had allthe prerequisites of a high standard of living –hypocaust heating, painted plaster, imported

pottery, window glass, tessellated floors (it seemsthe mosaic floor may have been removed duringVictorian excavations) and a coin series endingwith coins of Arcadius (AD 395-402).Painted wall-plasterThe total number of fragments of painted wall-plaster recovered from the seven evaluationtrenches was 231 (2,572 g). Over three quarters ofthe fragments were monochrome, white, yellowochre and pink being the predominant colours.Most of the plaster came from a single trench invarious demolition layers. A type series has beenestablished based on the different colours andcolour combinations used. The distribution andquantification of wall-plaster types aresummarised in the assessment report.

Given the small size of the assemblage it isdifficult to compute the style of decoration. Themany striped fragments (right), some of finelypainted lines, indicate a decoration of panels andborders, with the background colour being eitheryellow ochre or white. Type 10 indicates thebackground colour of yellow ochre butting up to awhite panel defined by a painted line (5mm thick)of dark red. Other panel colour schemes may beindicated by type 15 which has a pink (faded darkred?) background with a yellow ochre paneldefined by a painted 3mm black band. Otherpanel colour schemes are type 17, pink and whitecolours meeting at a well defined edge, and type18, dark red and white colours, also meeting at a

Deerton Street

F I E L D S C H O O L R E V I E W

The classic Roman image ofa Roman villa from Trier inGermany identifys the typeas a winged corridor housewith the corridor running

along the front of the housestopping short of its twoends, which project in wings.There is probably a internalopen yard behind.

Deerton Street Roman villais a developed form of row-house with a longitudinallobby and a block of smallrooms of different sizes at the

north east end. Two possibletowers, one to the south westa true pavilion, and the oneto the south east part of thebath-house.

Deerton Street Roman villa


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well defined edge. Panel-schemes are the mostcommon form of wall-painting throughout theRoman period.

No foliate painting was recovered orrecognised, but some samples (types 9 and 14)represent the imitation marble typical of dadodesigns of the period whilst types 11 and 12

indicate stippling usually associated withcurvilinear designs.

The colours still surviving on the wall-plasterare extremely bright, almost garish, and combinedwith the possible polychrome mosaics would haveturned the interior of the villa into quite acolourful spectacle to modern eyes.Mosaic fragmentsMany hundreds of loose tesserae were recovered;the majority in situ on ‘destabilised’ floors. Therewere, on average, three sizes, 25-30mm, 15mmand 10mm.


The layout of the apsed bath in the model (left) can be seen in theexcavation of the apsed bath-house at Deerton Street (right).

PotteryA total of 893 sherds were examined by AndrewSavage and John Cotter from CanterburyArchaeological Trust (CAT) for the purpose ofspot-dating. The pottery recovered included awide range of local and imported fabrics. Most of these range in date from the later 1st century

AD to the late 3rd and probably 4thcenturies.

The coarsewares are almost all ofKentish manufacture, although sherds of aVerulamium region sandy ware Colchestermortarium, a south Spanish Dressel 20amphora and Alice Holt ware were alsoidentified. The fineware includedsubstantial quantities of grey and oxidisedUpchurch-type fabrics in addition to Nene-valley and Oxford colour-coated wares.Samian (mostly central Gaulish) and

central Gaulish Rhenish and Moselkeramikcolour-coated ware completed the finewareassemblage of pottery sherds.

Earlier sherds which can be dated to the pre-Flavian or Flavian-Trajanic periods came from thetest-pits. They include a north Gaulish butt-beaker and a sand and shell-tempered bead-rimjar. Also a south Gaulish Samian sherd wasfound. There were, in addition, a number ofsherds of ‘Belgic’ grog-tempered ware and sand-tempered ware which are likely to be of a similar date.

The presence of Alice Holt ware and lateRoman grog-tempered ware suggests that activityon the site probably extended into the 4th century.

Two factors that may suggest activity on thesite in the very late Roman period are the smallincidence of late Roman grog-tempered ware. Theother factor that should be noted is the forty-twocoins recovered, some dating to the second andthird quarters of the 4th century. Likewisepossible Saxon rubbish pits have now beenconfirmed to contain sherds of Saxon pottery.

Other Saxon (and Frankish) pottery was foundinside the building under a fallen late Roman flintwall and it may be the later Saxon settlers utilisedstill standing Roman walls into their ownhabitation. The proof of Saxon activity on theRoman villa site, although not unique in Kent, isworthy of note.


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Teynham, the Archbishops Palace


Investigation bystudents of theKAFS at Teynham

in Kent located thesite of the summerresidence of theArchbishops ofCanterbury where ithad been mapped inthe 1930’s (left). Ithas been suggested

that the Archbishops’ residence had beenexcavated by Brian Philp next door to the churchsome time in the 1970s, but the published note ofthe excavation suggests this particular building,which is much smaller than the main residencefound by KAFS, was used for storing wine or as ahospital.

The main residence complex was located some400 metres north of the church, and constructed ofdressed stone blocks, with Caen stone carvedtracery windows decorated with hand-paintedcoloured glass. Fragments of medieval glazedfloor tiles decorated with a fleur-de-lis patternindicate the splendour of the interior decoration,

whilst the domestic pottery found duringexcavation gives a date range for the ecclesiasticalestablishment from the 12th to 16th centuries.

Some re-used Roman building material was alsofound, but it is unlikely that this came from avilla. The geophysical survey also failed to revealany traces of the usual Roman buildingsassociated with a villa. It is possible that the onlyRoman building on this site was a temple locatedunder the church itself. The church contains alarge amount of re-used Roman building ceramics,

Excavation of the palace (left)at (2). Pottery retrieved at bothlocations (above) and stainedglass (right) from the thechurch ditch (1). Geophysical

survey (top) at (1) indicatesnumerous stone buildingssubsequently investigated, andfound to date from the 11th to12th centuries.

1

2


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including monumental drip-stones and lumps ofRoman flooring material, opus signinum.

The church’s location, on a mound with viewsto the Roman Watling Street and the small(Roman?) port of Teynham, suggests it is the siteof a Roman temple and not a villa, but this aspectneeds more work.

The pottery found during excavation hasrevealed a great deal. The report by medievalpottery specialist, John Cotter, suggests that thePalace site (2) and the Church site (1) were inexistence at the same time.The combined total of 210 sherds (2.881kg) ofpottery was recovered from the two sites, most ofit medieval and post-medieval. Small amounts ofIron Age and Roman pottery occur residually onthe church site, as does a single Anglo-Saxonsherd of the 5/6th century.

Neither site produced any ceramic evidence forlater Saxon occupation nor any definite evidencefor 11th century occupation (an observationsupported by the virtual absence of earlymedieval Canterbury sandy ware — the typical11/12th century ware of this area). All the early

medieval wares present appear to date from thevery end of this date range, i.e. after c.1175 or1200.

Shelly wares are the dominant early medievaltype on these sites and probably persisted locallyuntil as late as c.1250. At Canterbury they becamedefunct some time before this — probably byc.1225 — due to the domination of Canterbury/Tyler Hill sandy wares. The shelly wares atTeynham, mainly cooking pots, were probablymade locally somewhere near the north Kentcoast. The shell inclusions differ somewhat from

those at Canterbury, which was probably suppliedby a more easterly source. As at nearby Iwade (tothe west) and Faversham (to the east), Tyler Hillware is the dominant pottery type of the 13–14thcentury. This comprises mostly utilitarian glazedjugs, but the palace site at Teynham also produceda fragment of a Tyler Hill louver — an elaboratetype of chimney pot or roof ventilator —suggesting a building of some substance. TylerHill wares were supplemented by glazed finewarejugs from the London area.

Although Teynham lies only some 11 miles westof Canterbury, some of the medieval andparticularly the late-medieval pottery types atTeynham are virtually unknown in Canterbury.These later pottery types almost certainly comefrom Wealden sources such as Maidstone and theMedway area. These include jugs and storagevessels decorated with white slip painting andundecorated coarsewares from the early 16th-century kiln at Hareplain near Biddenden. Onboth sites at Teynham much of the medieval andlate-medieval pottery (mainly 16th century) camefrom residual or mixed contexts containing laterpottery. A total of 37 fragments (3.120kg) ofmedieval floor tile was recovered from both sites,and include decorated Tyler Hill products.

Building excavated by Philp

To the church

N

Buildings discovered andexcavated by KAFS


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Star Hill at Bridge

In 2003 the KAFS was invited by the BridgeHistory Society to investigate a crop-mark ontop of Star Hill in the shape of a hexagon.

The NMR Monument Report summarises the feature as: ‘Hexagonal feature with dark centreseen on air photograph, possibly a World War IImilitary installation’.

However, research had uncovered a 19th century map by the Reverent Vine in his book‘Caesar in Kent’. Vine thought it was a small fort,one of two in the grounds of Bourne Park.

An ideal opportunity had therefore arisen tocarry out an archaeological training excavation ona crop-mark officially considered at the very bestto be a feature associated with the landscaping ofBourne Park or either built as a military installa-tion during World War II.

During May Bank Holiday in 2003 investigationby the Field School of three points of the hexagonenabled the students to find the centre of thehexagon where stripping of the turf revealed acircular pit, about three metres in diameter cutinto the chalk. The pit had been pillaged sometime in the past but sherds of Late Iron Age pottery and Medieval pottery do suggest a crema-tion pit of Late Iron Age/ Early Roman period plundered during the Medieval period.

Further stripping of the topsoil in 2004 withinthe perimeter of the hexagon failed to find anytree-planting pits, indeed the only featuresrevealed were a number of rubbish pits dug into

the chalk by soldiers during the First and SecondWorld Wars.

In 2005 further work was undertaken on thesouth side of the hexagon where almost immediately an east-west orientated grave cutinto the chalk was revealed with a number of seventh century Anglo-Saxon coins exposed inthe disturbed fill. Further work revealed a possible family group of 12 graves orientated tothe hexagon feature with Graves 3, 4 and 7 cutting the fill of the hexagon feature ditch.

The graves were an obvious target for treasurehunters and full excavation proceeded with theappropriate license obtained. Most of the gravescontained artefacts that were Treasure Trove andinclude a gold pendant, glass palm cup, Frankishpottery vessels, beads, buckles, spears, knives,cowrie shells, loom weights and over 60 silverAnglo-Saxon coins.

Worked flint and Iron Age pottery sherds werealso retrieved by sieving the topsoil within theexcavated area. The worked flint is the subject ofa specialist report which dates the assemblage tothe Neolithic and suggests that stone tool manufacture was taking place on site.

The constant retrieval of scattered fresh Iron-Age pottery sherds throughout the site did suggest that Iron-Age occupation was a possiblefeature of the site and investigation of this aspectshould form part of the forthcoming ResearchDesign.

Land at Star Hill has a complex mass of crop-marks revealed by air photographs (above left).


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They cover an area of approximately 5 hectares tothe west of the A2 (Watling Street). The crop-marks are reported in the RCHME MappingProject No. 1077099 dated 01 October to 1986-01.

The crop-marks show a large number ofploughed-out round barrows sitting astride thecourse of the Roman Watling Street within theScheduled Monument area whilst to the north-west are a large number of smaller ditchedbarrows. To the south-west there are a number ofpossible rectangular enclosures which as yet havenot been investigated.

The field in question is adjacent to theScheduled Monument KE71 which currently

covers a linear area alongside the A2 road. In 2006 we returned to the site after consultationwith the British Museum and after formulating aResearch Design which set out the procedures toinvestigate a larger area of 150x50m.

Over 90 Anglo-Saxon graves were revealedalong with Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Agebuildings and features.

Some of the Anglo- Saxon graves cut into thehexagon which means it pre-dates them and ismost likely to be Roman.

No further work was carried out on the gravesbut we were able to investigate the Prehistoricand Roman archaeology with important results.

Excavation of three corners ofthe hexagon enabled us tolocate the centre of the featurewhich on investigationcontained a circular pit whichhad probably containedcremation urns. Potteryretrieved from the fill of thehexagonal ditch gives a datefrom 150BC to AD50. Anumber of Anglo-Saxongraves cut into the fill of theditch (below) and these can bedated to the 7th century. Thehexagonal ditch was surveyedand beautifully cut as thecorners show. The evidence isconclusive that the hexagonalfeature is unique andprobably Roman.

Artefacts retrieved from some ofthe graves (right) were declaredTreasure Trove and are as fine as

these artefacts foundlocally.


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In August 2007 archaeologicalstudents and members of theKAFS descended on Bax Farm,

just to the west of Faversham, andadjacent to Watling Street, toinvestigate the probable site of a

Roman villa found by field-walkingand test-pitting as part of the Swale

Archaeological Survey by Paul Wilkinson in 1998.Our first evaluation trench’ which focussed on

the highest concentration of surface finds exposeda cornucopia of archaeological features includingthe concrete base of a large corn mill, a sunkenroad or ‘hollow-way’, Anglo-Saxon buildings andthe remains of a massive stone-built Roman bathhouse. The masonry structure, c.10m across,enclosed a central octagonal frigidarium pool over5m across (right).

Some rooms had underfloor heating, withalcoves containing hot plunge baths. Theexcavated base of a rectangular pillar suggests thebath house was arcaded.

In the early 5th century the bath house wasrebuilt and a smaller circular pool built over thecentral area. The hypocaust brick conduit wasblocked off, and a lead pipe -still in situ- installedto drain the pool and fountain whose base stillsurvives. This elaborate and exotic building hasits roots in buildings built in Rome byConstantine as Christian baptisteries in the 4thcentury.

Octagonal buildings of this type are to be foundin the West Country at Lufton and Holcombe,others are further afield in Ravenna. The functionof these elaborate and exotic buildings has oftenbeen discussed but most experts keep comingback to the idea that the astonishing octagonalfrigidarium in the centre could have been used forChristian baptism or even Jewish sacred bathing,a scenario reinforced by the finding at Bax Farmof a Roman lead seal probably depicting theJewish minorah on site. Some rooms hadunderfloor heating as well as alcoves whichcontained hot plunge baths. It is logical to assumethat above the central pool and its fountain was avaulted ceiling carried on arcading or columns;Some elements of a unique stucco ceiling hadsurvived, and possibly a large dome set onpendentives that would have echoed and


reflected the sound of cascading water. Ceilingssuch as these would have been possible with thecolumns or arcading bearing the vertical pressure,and the surrounding ground floor roomsproviding a buttressing effect to counteractoutward thrust.

This is very sophisticated Roman engineeringand belongs more to the late Roman andByzantine Mediterranean world and has to opena discussion on why and how late were suchRoman influences prevalent in Roman Britain. We plan to continue excavations in 2009.

The plan (left) shows theastonishing octagonalbuilding or frigidarium atHolcombe in Devon which,along with Lufton inSomerset, is of the type foundat Bax Farm (below left). Alsofound at Bax Farm was a leadseal (top left) embossed with afive branched menorah whichmay suggest the building wasused for Christian baptism orJewish sacred bathing.

Bax Farm


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In August 2006 archaeological students andmembers of the Field School investigatedStone Chapel Field, just to the west of

Faversham, and adjacent to Watling Street, tounravel a mystery associated with the ruinedRoman building that was built on in the Saxonperiod as a church.

This configuration is unique in Britain and thebig question was “what was the original functionof the Roman building”.

Two weeks of investigation by almost onehundred students revealed that the ruined Romanbuilding is probably not Roman , but likely tohave been built by St Augustine in the 6thcentury, almost certainly on top of the remains ofa Romano-Celtic pagan temple, set within itsown precinct with other high-status Romanbuildings both inside and outside a sacredenclosure. These Roman buildings had stonewalls and tiled roofs and were finished internallywith decorated painted plaster. The Romanprecinct wall was massively built of flint nodulesset in mortar and overlaid earlier Roman levels.

Fragments of stone columns suggest that theambulatory or portico of the Romano-Celtictemple probably had a sloping roof supported bycolumns sitting on either an external dwarf wallor stone pads. Colonel Meates had excavatedStone Chapel in the 1970’s but failed to findevidence of the ambulatory or portico, stronglysuggesting the outer wall of the temple didconsist of columns; indeed part of a stone columnis still to be seen built into the ruined nave of theAnglo-Saxon church.


Excavation of 17 trenchesaround the ScheduledMonument found the Romanperimeter wall (right) which issufficient evidence to putforward the proposition thatthe monument is not, asthought, a Roman mausoleumbut a Romano-Celtic temple ofa known type andconfiguration. The layout ofthe temple buildings may beas shown (left) with the storeroom under the Saxon churchand the temple to the west.

Trench 1 (above) was strippedby hand and revealed thecollapsed Roman perimeterwall dating from AD370-400

which is very late for this typeof building. The wall wasrobbed in AD1150-1350, nodoubt to build the chapel.

Stone Chapel

The interimreport on StoneChapel can be

downloaded as a PDFfrom the KAFS website, as can all KAFSreports. Full colourpaper copies areavailable at £15.


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The 2004-5 summerexcavations at Hog Brookby students of the KAFS

revealed an exceptionally well-preserved early Roman stone-

built aisled building whichcontinued in use into the Saxonperiod. Full details of theexcavation will be published in thePost-excavation Assessment Report

due to be finished in early 2009.Hog Brook is close to Deerton Street and just tothe north of Watling Street (the A2). From ageophysical survey, conducted on a KAFS course,it is clear that the structure was not isolated, butassociated with other buildings in the vicinity,including the largeRoman villa to the westof the spring.

The Roman villa estateat Deerton Street is oneof a number found inrecent years along theline of Watling Street byPaul Wilkinson. All theestates are locatedaround a spring, setback from Watling Streetand with easy access tothe sea. The area usually farmed was about 2000acres per villa. At Deerton Street, some of themodern field boundaries still form field divisionsof 20 actus square, the classic field size from theRoman period.

Excavation of the Roman basilical buildingrevealed twenty substantial rectangular stonepiers still surviving (above right) to the firstcourse with the late Roman sand floor intact.Buried under the demolition rubble and laying onthe sand floor were the remains of one of thefallen Roman rectangular columns (Pier A), builtof mortared Kentish ragstone and Tufa blockswith a double line of Roman tiles spacedhorizontally about every metre. About five metresof the fallen pier survived.

Under the fallen pier debris there were theremains of an articulated skeleton of a small cowand sherds of Anglo-Saxon pottery subsequently

dated to the mid 6th century.Stamped Samain pottery from the Roman

builders’ trench date the construction of this massive stone basilical building from 80 to 110ADwhilst Anglo-Saxon pottery sherds and a copperalloy Anglo-Saxon brooch found laying on the lateRoman sandy floor under the collapsed tiled roofshow the building continued in use until at leastthe early 7th century.

The building is thought to have been destroyedby fire as fragments of the burnt roof timbers still survived under the fallen tiled roof.


Field-walking located thedemolition ‘halo’ of a largeRoman stone building which oninvestigation in 2004-2005proved to be 35.70m (117ft 2")long and 15.40m (50ft 7") wide(above). The building was built

to Roman measurements, thewidth at 15.40m is about 52pM(Roman feet, the pes Monetalisof 296mm length) and thelength at 35.70m is about oneactus (of 35.50m). The roof wastiled (above top).

Hog Brook Roman Building


15


With so much surviving from the structure of thebuilding it is possible to state that the designwas of an arcaded stone building with clerestory lighting, aseparate nave with two aisles, allroofed in tile, and of a type recognised by Collingwood, andRichmond.

The building shows that for thisRoman villa estate at least, a basilicalprototype was drawn upon for the aisled build-ing, and that in form it had much more in common with a basilica in a Roman forum or military camp than with the normal timber ‘work-hall’ as defined by John T. Smith.

Why such an architectural sophisticated stonebuilding should have been built so early in theKentish countryside can probably answered bytwo words - agricultural produce.


The basilican barn found at HogBrook by Paul Wilkinson is usuallyassociated with a type of Roman villafound in Britain but not unknown onthe continent.

There is dispute over whether thebasilican building had a roofed naveor an open central courtyard. AtHogbrook the evidence of the fallentiled roof confirms that the centralnave was indeed roofed. Stone baseshave been found by excavators atsites such as Clanville, near Andoverand at Carisbooke (Isle of Wight)and it was thought that thevertical piers were of wood.However, at Hog Brook

Spoonley Wood, Glos. 1:60

one of the fallen stone piers wasexposed by KAFS archaeologists andshows the building was constructed ofstone with a timber and tiled roof.Hog Brook is one of the largest ruralbasilican buildings found in Britain, at35m (117ft) longer than Ickleton (78ft)and Spoonley Wood (60ft). The mainvilla at Hog Brook is less than 150metres away and it is likely that the

basilican building housed villaestate personnel and

agricultural produce butwith no window glass

or painted plasterto embellish the

interior.

It is possible to reconstruct thebasilican building at HogBrook because of the discoveryat Meonstoke of the fallenfacade (above) which showsthe norm for these Romanbuildings was a clerestory withseparate nave and aisle roofsas suggested by Collingwood,Richmond and others.

J T Smith has in recent yearspostulated a single span roofwhich, until the discovery atMeonstoke, was the prevailingorthodoxy. It may be the casefor simpler buildings but forMeonstoke and Hog Brook theevidence indicates a link withlarger basilical buildings witha Mediterranean heritage.

Ickleton, Cambs. 1:60

Holbury, Hants. 1:60Hog Brook, Kent. 1:60


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The Roman administra-tion needed hugeamounts of grain to feedthe armies of Britainand the Rhine and thisbuilding, established inthe 1st century in one ofthe many villa estatesbuilt in the most fertilearea of Kent, with itslarge side entrances anda artificial deepwaterchannel that wouldhave allowed barges to

load and unload alongside this huge barn orwork-hall with ease.

The sophisticated style of building, and its earlydate, suggest that the Roman administration wereinvolved in developing the agricultural resourcesof the recently conquered territories of theCantiaci.

In 1978 John Hadman, in discussing the use andconstruction of Roman aisled buildings in RomanBritain, was emphatic “that there was no magic in

The spring at Deerton Street iscalled Hog Brook. To the west(left) is a large and substantialRoman villa found by theField School and excavatedover four summer campaigns.The villa is about 49m (160ft)long and includes asubstantial apsed bath suitedecorated with fine paintedplaster and a tessellated floor.

Field-walking to the east(right) of the spring identifiedthe site of another substantialstone building. Oninvestigation this turned outto be a huge aisled stone barnbuilt in the first century andsurviving as a structure wellinto the Saxon period. Romancoins show late activity in thethird and fourth centuries.

The plots of land (1) set intothe corner of Actus 27 (above)are just to the south of theRoman villa at Deerton Street.Each plot is measured in the

North German foot of 12thumbs or 36 barleycorns laidend to end. The configurationof the plots survived throughthe medieval period until

modern times when themedieval dwellings weredemolished and replaced withcouncil houses.


their method of construction. The use of two rowsof roof-supports to provide greater stability andwidth is a logical step and one which could, andprobably did, occur independently. On the continent convincing close parallels are few....andthis type of building may be, like corn dryers,largely a Romano-British phenomenon” (Hadman1978, 188).

Of course the material of construction was presumed to be timber, and Hadman suggestedthat aisled buildings “naturally occurred ingreater numbers where timber for their construc-tion was readily at hand” (Hadman 1978, 189).

Over 120 examples of this type of timber aisledRoman building have been found in Britain (1997)with only a few identified in Europe. J T Smithhas outlined the function and social implicationsof such buildings and suggested its use as a‘work-hall’ probably with a dual use, that of livingaccommodation and agricultural activity (Smith JT 1963, 1-30)

J T Smith, a vernacular architect had suggestedthat these aisled buildings were more akin tomedieval and post-medieval aisled barns.

1


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Under the demolished Romanbuilding archaeologists fromKAFS found the late Romansandy floor surface waslittered with animal bones,fallen roof tiles and Anglo-Saxon pottery.

The reconstruction of the roof,resting on stone corbals, isbased on the size of Romannails found in the excavationand the two basilica roofspostulated for the Roman fortsof Birdoswald on HadriansWall and Saalburg inGermany (far left).

KAFS students,using GroundPenetrating Radar,plotted the path of a two-metre deep water channelabutting the remains of aRoman cobbled surfaceadjacent to the warehouse. Thiswould have enabled Romanbarges to come alongside andload and unload cargoes withease.The

Ground plan of the aisled barn showing thetwenty columns, the two side entrances and thesurviving outer walls. Pottery found on the lastRoman sandy floor is Anglo-Saxon and datingfrom the late-fifth and early- sixth centuries.Roman coins found in the make-up of the floorindicate activity in the fourth and fifth centurieswhilst Roman pottery in the foundations indicatethe structure was built in the first century AD.J T Smith, a vernacular architect suggested thatthese aisled buildings were akin to medieval andpost-medieval aisled barns but the alternative formof construction, a structure with a clerestory,separate nave and aisle roof, was a more classical

solution, and had been suggested earlier byCollingwood and Richmond.



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The OS map of 1860 shows thesupposed Roman fort and the siteof Durolevum. A ‘Time team’investigation found no evidenceof a Roman fort but failed to

uncover the massive late IronAge fortified settlement recentlyexcavated by SWAT Archaeologyprior to commercial developmentof Syndale House.

The 2003-8 summerand Easter KAFSexcavations took

place on area ofpasture land atSyndale Park, nearFaversham, Kent. The

land is in theownership of trustees

and is currently underpasture grazed by sheep.

However, plans exist for KCC Highways tobuild a road bypass over the area underinvestigation and an extensive hotel developmentis planned for some areas of the park.

In 2003 the Kent Archaeological Field School(KAFS) was invited by the trustees to investigatethe park with a view to enabling them to beinformed on the extent and quality of the archaeology surviving in the park.

The area had attracted the attention of archaeologists from as early as the 18th centurywith Hasted, Hawley, Philp, and Time Team allmaking their own contribution to our knowledgeof the park.

A programme of field survey and geophysicalinvestigation supported by limited excavation bythe KAFS has now shed new light on the natureand extent of monuments within the park, whichin turn has led to a wider investigation of the landnorth and south of the Roman Watling Streetwhich itself runs east/west through the park(right). The current focus of attention in 2008 wasan area located at the eastern edge of the park andsouth of Watling Street.

This area was originally investigated by ColonelHawley in September 1922, where he reportedthat: “a paved hearth and wall foundations” hadbeen revealed (Whiting & Hawley 1931).

On investigation of his trench by KAFS the‘paved hearth’ turned out to be a monumental sarcophagus built out of chalk blocks and KentishRagstone with a terracotta ceramic lid coveringthe grave slot. The monument is late, having beenbuilt over the remains of a 3rd century kiln.

The terracotta lid has been damaged sometimein the past, but the grave has not been robbed andthe burial is still in situ. Other features exposedwere a Roman kiln or oven, Roman cremationburials, Roman Watling Street and a large Roman

Roman buildings

Roman road

Syndale Park/Durolevum


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A stretch of the main Romanroad in Britain (WatlingStreet) was located in SyndalePark by map analysis andsubsequent geophysical survey(left). Excavation has shown itis two separate roads, with one

partly built over the earlierroad, itself dating from AD50.Areas of cobbling (above)adjacent to the road surroundlow-status Roman buildingsbuilt of timber, wattle & daubwith thatched roofs.

double ditch dated by coins and pottery to the 1stcentury and dug before Watling Street, itself datedto about AD 50.

The study area under investigation lies within arich archaeological landscape. To the west thestanding remains of Stone Chapel are a ScheduledMonument and were subject to a recent investigation by the KAFS who concluded it wasbuilt as a Romano-Celtic temple, and then probably rebuilt as an early Christian church.

Investigation by Hawley in 1926-31 withinSyndale Park to the west found the remains ofRoman houses alongside the A2 (Watling Street).In Syndale Park itself he found the remains of twoskeletons (Whiting & Hawley 1931).

In 2004-7 the KAFS found a number of Romancremations, the remains of Watling Street andadjacent Roman buildings which is likely to be theRoman small town of Durolevum (PracticalArchaeology Issues 2-7).

To the east of the area under investigation is theAnglo-Saxon cemetery of Kings Field which in the19th century was destroyed by workmen constructing the railway. Our only survival, fromwhat is is probably the most important Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Kent, is what Mr Gibbs, thelocal grocer, managed to buy from the workmen.

Roman buildings

Roman buildings

The Roman small town of Durolevum is locatedby Roman road maps 7 miles from Canterburyand 13 miles from Rochester. The town is shown(above) on the Peutinger map and is alsorecorded in the Antonine Itinerary.

‘Duro’ indicates the name of a fort and is aCeltic name. A L F Rivet suggests the name canbe interpreted as ‘fort on the smooth-flowingriver’ and suggests an early Roman fort can beexpected, possibly the place where Aulus Plautiusleft a Roman garrison in AD43.


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Of particular interest at Kings Field was the variety of the grave goods which ranged from lateRoman pottery, gold Anglo-Saxon jewellery, probably made at Faversham, to Christian British-made hanging bowls from western Britain.

This diversity of material culture was recognised at Kings Field in the 19th century andwas again clearly in evidence during the 2007investigation of the study area.

One of the Roman cremation pots retrievedfrom the study area had Christian graffiti on itand, close by, a gilded copper alloy decorativemount was recovered probably dating from theearly Anglo-Saxon period (c.450-650).

Interestingly, the gilded

repousse decoration had a symmetrical design ofwhat appears to be two opposed animals or birdswhich is reminiscent of designs found on lateRoman or early post-Roman buckles.

The study area lies within a rich archaeologicallandscape which at present is little understood,and unfortunately there is not as yet in East Kenta research agenda led by English Heritage orKCC. Work by the KAFS has located the smallRoman town of Durolevum, the associated cemeteries, confirmed the route of Watling Street,clarified the function of Stone Chapel as aRomano-Celtic temple and located an late IronAge fortified settlement and a possible earlyRoman marching camp.

The investigation by‘Time Team’ at Syndale Parkwas extremely useful.Although the main objective offinding the Roman fort was

unsuccessful, the amount ofsurvey and interpretation doneallowed the KAFS to build onthis work and add to theinterpretation of the landscape.

The ‘sacred’ well located by‘Time Team’ is here beingexcavated by KAFS. It datesfrom the late 3rd century andcontained domestic rubbish,pottery, animal bones andover 50 Roman coins.Paul Wilkinson (above) fromKAFS and Phil Harding from‘Time Team’ about to step outof a trench in Syndale Park.

The monumental sarcophagus(above) built out of chalk blocksand stone with a ceramic lidcovering the grave. The burial islate, having been built over the

remains of a 3rd century kiln.The ceramic lid has beendamaged sometime in the past,but the grave has not been robbedand the lead coffin is still in situ.


21



Field-work,including ageophysical

survey, has identifiedthe original, lost routeof Watling Street justto the west ofFaversham. Studentsfrom the KAFS in2004 spent a weekend

excavating a section across the buried roadwhich runs parallel to but south of themodern A2.

The Roman road surface was in extremelygood condition and consisted of coarse sandmixed with fine gravel. Large flint stones hadbeen used as a retaining kerb, and incidentallyshow up extremely well on the geophysicalsurvey undertaken by Malcolm Davies.

Sitting on top of this Roman road surfacewere some 14 Roman coins, two of whichwere silver. It seems the road was intensivelyused and then immediately went out of use atthe end of the Roman period, suggesting acomplete breakdown of Roman traffic in thispart of Kent. The road had not been used inthe medieval, post-medieval or modernperiod, and was found buried under almost ametre of soil. The new road had beenrealigned some 10 metres to the north at anunknown date. On the north edge of the roadwas found the frontage of a substantial stone-

built Roman building with stone-carvedclassical architectural details. In the doorwayleading directly on to Watling Street studentexcavators found large pieces of a brokenRoman pot and a quern stone, and just insidethe entrance and sitting on the cobbled floorwere the remains of a Roman hob-nailed boot.

The archaeological evidence suggests thisbuilding had been abandoned in some hurry,with household artifacts scattered around.

The geophysical survey indicates numerousother Roman buildings in the near vicinity.Some of these Roman buildings were hand-excavated down to their preserved remains in2005-6 by students from the KAFS.

Field-walking, again by Field Schoolstudents, has recovered sufficient data tosuggest the main area of Roman settlement isa ribbon development along Watling Street,but a test excavation has uncovered a Romancoin and foundations deeply buried underalluvial material 600 metres to the north ofWatling Street.

Given the unusual number of Roman burialsin Dressel 20 Romano-Spanish amphorasfound in recent years along this stretch ofWatling Street, it can be suggested that thisnew discovery of Roman foundations mayindicate the location of a Roman port whichserved the Roman communities along WatlingStreet, of which the small Roman town atDurolevum was one.

Investigations at SyndalePark by the KAFS havelocated exactly theRoman town ofDurolevum (1&2). Thereare more Romanbuildings (3) around thefresh water springs ofOspringe. These will beinvestigated in 2010.Work will continue onthe late Iron Age fortifiedsettlement on top ofSyndale Hill (1).

12

3


22

The site of Blacklands issituated in an area of arableland at School Farm, just to

the north of the study centre ofthe KAFS, near Faversham. Theland is in the ownership of

Martin Thomas and iscurrently under arable

production. However, ploughing is destroying the buried

monuments to an alarming degree. Full colourpictorial mosaics found in earlier investigations inBuilding A no longer exist having been destroyedby farming activity over the last few years.

In 1996 Paul Wilkinson, as part of his researchfor a PhD thesis, investigated the documentaryevidence for Roman villas in the FavershamDistrict, and had noted that in the Victoria CountyHistory:

“Here it will suffice to observe that at Blacklands, inEwell, a mile east of Faversham, is thought, some-what vaguely and suspiciously, to be the site of aRoman villa which was destroyed by fire”

The site of Blacklands was unknown to modernarchaeologists. However, three documents wereresearched to pinpoint the exact whereabouts ofBlacklands.

The first was the Rental Survey of FavershamAbbey of 1515 which itemises:

“Ewell Poondes adjacent to the said pasture and containing 8 acres of pasture and marsh in respectwhereof pasture 3 acres and lying next to Blackland”

The second document is a parchment map madeby Christopher Saxton in September 1590 whichplaces the field called ‘Blacklands’ just north ofthe then unknown Roman complex

The third was a manuscript and map bought bythe Faversham Society in 1996 and marked ‘surveyed by John Wood in 1614’ which pinpoints‘Black Landes’ again to the north of the thenunknown Roman complex whilst the fields whichcontains buried Roman buildings were called‘Great and Little Snagg Fielde’. Snagg is derivedfrom Old Norse and can mean hidden obstructions; no doubt the buried Roman

monuments were ‘snagging’ the medievalplough.

Of particular interest is an Anglo Saxon charterdating from AD 815 which names the water inletor fleot leading to Blacklands as ‘ealh-fleot’. Theword ealh means a pagan temple or, in more general terms, a sanctuary.

After the discovery of the site by field-walkingPaul Wilkinson excavated a small area with BrianPhilp in 1997. Later Peter Kendall from EnglishHeritage generously offered to conduct a geophysical survey Which Andy Payne carriedout with stunning results (below, right).

Excavating and drawing upthe 6th century post holes builtinto the Roman Building A.The view is to the south westover the rural ‘cockpit’ theatredepression and towards thefresh water springs. The

plough zone can be seen to beonly about 20cm which meansthat if this site is ploughedwith modern machinery it willbe destroyed with the majorloss of a Romano-Gallic typeof rural sanctuary.

Blacklands, Faversham



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Many of the theatres found in rural Gaul are of aspecial type, peculiar to the Celtic provinces of theempire. These so-called Romano-Celtic cockpittheatres have a large, nearly circular orchestra anda narrow stage erected much further back than thestandard type, as postulated for Canterbury andseen at Orange. These theatres are associated withsacred springs (west of theatre) and Romano Celtic-temples such as found at Sanxay (Vienne).

The geophysical survey(above) indicates a plethora ofburied features, whilst thesketch plan (right) showsexcavated features (black) andpostulated features based ongeophysical survey (grey). Twomajor buildings have beenexcavated, Building’s A & B.

Baths are found in the vicinityof the theatre as at othersanctuary sites such asSanxay. All the elements foundat Blacklands with the addedbenefit of rolled curse tabletsfound in excavation suggestthat the site is a rural religioussanctuary.

The initial investigations with Philp revealedthe remains of a Roman bath house with mosaicfragments and highly decorated painted plaster. Itwas thought that this was the only Romanbuilding on the site one of the so-called ‘isolated

bath-houses’ found only in Kent. With the English Heritage survey a further

possible 18 buried buildings were located, albeit electronically.

During August 2007 archaeological investigation by the KAFS began in ernest on thestudy site first investigated in 1997.

The geophysical survey by English Heritage(below) shows a plethora of features. The blacklines were conjectural walls, some of which havenow been shown to be Roman foundation walls.The Roman bath-house has a hypocaust systembuilt of chalk blocks which were full of demol-ished parts of the building, including full colour

pictorial mosaic fragments and painted plaster.Mosaic fragments retrieved are exceptionally

fine. Informed opinion is that they are some ofthe most important found in Kent (Cosh S. perscomm). The mosaic covered an area of aboutseven square metres with tessarae smaller thanone centimetre. Other features exposed wereanother large Roman building with a hypocaustsystem (Building B), a cobbled surface leadingto fresh water springs, and the large post-holesof a 6th century building built into the platformof Building A.

The depression was investigated and the infillcan be dated to the early 5th century with thefeature, a theatre in use up to the mid 4th century.

Investigation for 2009 is to investigate theprobable Romano-Celtic temples overlookingthe theatre.

Building ATheatre

Building B


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Centuriation in the Swale District

Oswald Ashton Dilke wrote in 1985 that:“The Romans from quite early times,mainly favoured a system of squares in

which to draw up a survey”. In rural areas these were centuriae (‘centuries’),

which were most commonly squares of 2400 x2400 Roman feet (20 x 20 actus, or 706 x 706m.).

Part of the investigation methodology of theKAFS is not to treat sites in isolation, but to integrate the sites into the landscape. The resultshave been encouraging. The landscape aroundHog Brook and Deerton Street can now, even after2000 years of agricultural activity, be seen to havebeen divided up into 20 actus squares. There are17 centuriation squares running in sequence alongWatling Street in the vicinity of Hog Brook withanother 12 clustered around them (above).

All of the 17 centuriation squares have beenmeasured on the ground and are within a fewmetres of 706m., the length of a 20 actus square

The results of this important large-scale investigation of Roman land measurement willbe, by necessity, written up in a separate report.

The best preserved example ofRoman centuriation in Europeis at Zara in Croatia (left). AtDeerton Street (above)extensive fieldwork wasneeded to unravel 2000 yearsof field boundary change dueto intensive arable farmimg.The initial results areencouraging with at least 29conjoined actus squares of706x706m running parallel toWatling Street and probablyusing the Roman road as asurvey baseline.


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R E P O R T S

To order, KAFS members may discount10% on the published price shown. All prices include post and packaging.

Please send a cheque for.................. madepayable to KAFS

Name....................................................................Delivery address.............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................email address......................................................

Pompeii...........................................................£12Archaeology....................................................£10BAR Port of Faversham..................................£25Stone Chapel Field.........................................£15Star Hill, Bridge.............................................£15Hog Brook, Deerton Street.............................£15

Send to: KAFS, School Farm Oast, GraveneyRoad, Faversham, Kent, ME13 8UP.

Three major interim reportshave now been published andare available as full colourpaper copies at £15 each.Alternatively they will beavailable free on line as PDFs

from Spring 2009. Reports inpreparation include‘Investigations at theArchbishops’ Palace atTeynham’ and ‘The RomanBath-house at Bax Farm’.


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SWAT Archaeology isnow the secondlargest commercial

archaeology unit in Kentwith up to 30archaeologists working

on a variety of projects.The Director is Paul

Wilkinson, who also heads upthe KAFS. Archaeological teams are puttogether on a sub-contract basis to provide acomplete archaeological service for clients.

These include some of the biggest names inthe industry. Recent projects include theexpansion of Manston Airport; Queenborough& Rushenden regeneration scheme for SEEDA;Hoo St Wereburgh housing development;Whitstable Horsebridge development; AbbeyStreet and Abbey Road, Faversham; Royal MarineBarracks at Deal; Altira Business Park, Beltinge,and many more.

We are committed to growth and excellence ofour work and turnover has doubled every yearsince 2006

The Field School benefits from this commercialinput both in expertise and funding andspecialists are able to teach weekend courses atthe Field School using material they areprocessing for commercial projects.

One of the most important points is that there isno great divide at the Field School between so-called ‘amateur’ archaeologists and professionals.The work that amateur archaeologists undertakeis important and meaningful and there is no placefor derision and elitism in the ranks ofprofessional archaeologists. Archaeology is ayoung profession still finding its way and allaround us our past is being destroyed at analarming rate.

The national and county archaeological agenciesare under-manned and under-funded, and localsocieties for the most part have retreated from thefield.

If we at SWAT and KAFS have learnt anythingin the last ten years is that the work we need to doin the field is vast, but the time left is short.

Plan of the so-called Iron Age‘bendy house’ at TrinitySquare, Margate, Kent (above).

Archaeological excavation forSimon Wright Homes at HooSt Wereburgh (below).

S W A T A R C H A E O L O G Y R E V I E W


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Field-work,as here,midwinter

on London Clayon the Isle ofSheppey is onlyfor the well-trained andbrave. Yet out ofthis inhospitablelandscape willcome lots ofwonderfulartefacts andinformation

which will write the history of thisneglected offshore island in north Kent. Theteam on this project, some thirty strongcome from all over Europe with key stafffrom Kent. All are self-employed andwelded into strong teams within days.

Working in advance ofdevelopers archaeologists fromSWAT are excavating Anglo-Saxon ditches and rubbishpits associated with asettlement focused on thechurch at Hoo St Wereburghin Kent. Without this type ofdeveloper-funded archaeologysites like this will be lost witha consequent loss ofinformation. A metaldetectorist is scanning whilstthe work is on-going and thefill of the ditches and rubbishpits will be bagged for post-excavation work. This willinclude looking for weeds,seeds, pollen, fish and birdbones. All of which holds thekey to our understanding ofdiet, landscape, and farmingactivity.

A Prehistoric landscape of25ha excavated at BlacksoleFarm, Beltinge, Kent. Multi-phased occupation datingfrom the Neolithic and BronzeAge through the Roman,Medieval and post-Medievalperiods. To date, threeroundhouses have beenuncovered, two of which dateto the Middle Bronze Age(left) and one from the IronAge. The landscape wasdivided up for arable, pastoraland domestic purposes.Further rectangularenclosures, along withdroveways, field boundariesand smaller internal divisions,reveal a network of herdingfeatures essential to thesuccessful management andcontrol of livestock.

S W A T A R C H A E O L O G Y R E V I E W


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K A F S C O U R S E S 2 0 0 9

The listing of archaeological courses for 2009.Unless otherwise stated two-day courses cost £70 and KAFS members enjoy a discount

on full prices, except on field trips. To book, fill in the form on page 33.For further details of all courses and membership see: www.kafs.co.uk

March 7th & 8th, Field Walking and MapAnalysisWalking across the landscape and recordingfeatures seen on the ground is fundamental tomost archaeology. This weekend course explainshow to set out a field walking programme in thefield and recognise and record artefacts foundwithin the plough soil. These objects include flinttools, building material, pottery, glass and metalartefacts. One of the uses of field walking is tobuild up a database for large-scale regionalarchaeological surveys. We will consider theimportance of regressive map analysis. The coursewill cover: strategies and procedures, standard andnon-standard linewalking, grid walking, potterydistribution, identifying pottery and buildingceramics, and practical experience of field walkingan important site. Cost for the weekend is £40 fornon-members and KAFS members free.

Easter, April 10th to April 17th, Excavation ofRoman buildings at Blacklands, Faversham.Our third season of field work and excavation(above) at Blacklands. In 2008 a theatre complexwas revealed and for this year an investigation intotwo associated temple enclosures and further workon the orchestra or ‘cockpit’ of the theatre areplanned. KAFS member’s special fee £20 per daywith non-members £30 per day.

April 18th & 19th, Bones and BurialsOsteo-archaeology is the study of human remains.The course will be led by Dr Patrick Mahonyfrom the Dept of Anthropology, University ofKent. The course will cover the on-site recordingof human remains and how they can revealinformation about the person’s age, sex and stateof health. Excavated skeletons will be availablefor study and analysis in practical sessions.Cost for the weekend is £70 for non-members andKAFS member’s special fee of £60.

May 2nd to May 4th, Introduction toArchaeology A practical three-day bank holiday course on thenewly discovered important Roman settlement atBlacklands near Faversham. We will survey theextent of the settlement, its access roads, field systems, and sample, through exacavation andfield-walking the extent and quality of survival ofthe Roman infrastructure. This course is ideal fornewcomers to archaeology who wish tounderstand the archaeological process. We shalllook at how archaeological sites are discoveredand find out how different types of finds, such aspottery, bones and flints, reveal the lives offormer peoples. The three-day Bank Holidaycourse costs £50 if membership is taken out at thetime of booking the course, otherwise £70.


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S U M M E R E X C AVA T I O N S 2 0 0 9E A S T E R , R O M A N B U I L D I N G S A T B L A C K L A N D S , A P R I L 1 0 T H T O A P R I L 1 7 T H

R O M A N PA L A C E A T O P L O N T I S , P O M P E I I , M AY 2 4 T H T O J U N E 1 9 T H

R O M A N B A T H S A T B A X F A R M , T E Y N H A M , A U G U S T 3 1 S T T O S E P T E M B E R 1 8 T H

Easter, April 10th to April 17th,Excavation of Roman buildings

at Blacklands, Faversham.Our third season of field

work and excavation atBlacklands. In 2008 a

theatre complex wasrevealed and for this year

an investigation into twoassociated temple enclosures and further workon the orchestra or ‘cockpit’ of the theatre areplanned. KAFS member’s special fee £20 perday, non-members £30 per day.

May 24th to June 19th, Excavation of theRoman Palace at Oplontis, PompeiiIn 2008 KAFS were invited by the Universityof Texas to participate in an archaeologicalinvestigation of a magnificent Romanmaritime palace probably owned by thefamily of the Emperor Nero at Oplontis whichis close to Pompeii. The Palace, (above right)shown on a contemporary map, was buriedbelow six metres of pumice and ash in AD79.

For 2009 we are able totake a larger team ofexperienced KAFSarchaeologists to workon this World HeritageSite. KAFS member’sspecial fee of £35 perday. Spaces are limited.

August 31st to September 18th,Excavation at the Roman Baths at BaxFarm, Teynham Our first evaluation trench in 2007 exposed acornucopia of archaeological features whichincluded the concrete base of a large corn mill,a sunken road or ‘hollow-way’, Anglo-Saxonbuildings and the remains of a massive stone-built Roman bath house. The masonrystructure, c.10m across, enclosed a centraloctagonal frigidarium pool over 5m across.

Work in 2009 will focus on uncovering thefull extant of this unique bath house and otherbuildings. KAFS member’s special fee £20 perday, non-members £30 per day.

The wall paintings (left) atOplontis are some of thefinest from the Roman world

whilst at Bax Farm (above) aunique octagonal bath houseawaits further investigation.


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K A F S C O U R S E S 2 0 0 9

May 16th & 17th, The Practical Study ofStone Tools Terry Hardaker will give a

worldwide overview ofthe Palaeolithic periodintroducing theevolutionaryframework anddescribing the centralimportance of stonetools. We trace the theuse of stone tools inBritain from newly

discovered sites in East Anglia, and studyBritain’s most important Palaeolithic site atBoxgrove followed by a practical session of toolrecognition. Mesolithic and Neolithic artefactswill be studied as a prelude to an afternoon offieldwalking when we will find examples of stonetools in the field. On Sunday there will be apractical exercise on field walking for lithicartefacts and flint knapping with John Lord, oneof the country’s leading practioners, everyonewill have the chance to make a flint tool withJohn’s expert guidance. Cost for the weekend is£70 for non-members and KAFS member’s specialfee of £60.

May 24th to June 19th, Excavation of theRoman Palace at Oplontis, Pompeii A small team from SWAT Archaeology andselected members of KAFS will be working withthe University of Texas on a research excavationat the world famous palace of Nero’s wifePoppaea. The palace was overwhelmed bypumice and ash during the eruption of Vesuviusin AD79 and buried under six metres of volcanicdebris. The World Heritage site was excavated inthe 1960’s with stunning results exposing some ofthe finest Roman paintings found anywhere inthe Roman world. This is a unique opportunity tojoin that small select band of archaeologists tohave excavated at Oplontis/Pompeii. Cost is £175per week, accommodation and meals notincluded, but advice given on accommodationavailable at Pompeii. For further details email Dr Paul Wilkinson at [email protected]

July 11th & 12th, Landscape ArchaeologyA course in two parts and spread over two

weekends. The course is designed for allthose who want to know more aboutthe English landscape. The firstweekend will be devoted to the sixmain categories of information: field

walking, archaeology, aerialphotography, maps, local history and

place-names. Dr Paul Wilkinson will guideus through the countryside in the afternoon toshow how to apply archaeological theory tointerpret and understand the landscape ofEngland. We can trace the history of the

T R A I N I N G D I G

S E P T E M B E R 7 T H T O 1 1 T H

Monday 7th to Friday 11th September,Archaeological Training Week at Bax FarmBeginners are welcome on the Monday toFriday training course, with the option tocontinue for further days (same dailyfee applies) excavating a uniqueoctagonal Roman bath house at BaxFarm. Topics taught each day are:Monday: History of the Site & Whydig? Tuesday: Excavation Techniques;Wednesday: Site Survey; Thursday:Archaeological Recording; Friday: Small FindsRecording. KAFS new member’s special fee £20 per day, non-members £30 per day.


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Field Trips led by Paul Wilkinson and other experts have over the last eight years been a huge success withmany hundreds of clients enjoying archaeological sites in Turkey, Sicily, Morocco, Tunisia, Spain, south of

France, Rome, Pompeii and the Bay of Naples, Croatia, Hadrians Wall and Germany.The trips fall into twocategories- our sister company ‘Roman Holidays’ in association with Thomson Holidays offer an all-

inclusive holiday with excellent hotels, flights and all meals whilst KAFS offer a ‘no frills’ study tour whereadvice is given on flights and hotels with KAFS providing the same standard of care as Roman Holidays

when we meet up on the ground. Both types of holidays offer excellent value and provide more for less costthan many of the better known archaeological tour companies. Our excellence can be judged by the number

of clients returning to us year after year for yet more wonderful trips.

F I E L D T R I P S 2 0 0 9T H E S A X O N S H O R E F O R T S , K E N T & S U S S E X , A U G U S T 7 T H T O A U G U S T 9 T H

D I O C L E T I A N S PA L A C E A T S P L I T, S E P T 1 9 T H T O S E P T 2 1 S T

R O M A N & C L A S S I C A L G R E E C E , O C T O B E R 1 0 T H T O 1 7 T H ( T B A )

R O M A N G E R M A N Y, D E C E M B E R 5 T H T O 1 1 T H

August 7th, 8th, 9th, The Saxon ShoreForts in Kent, and Sussex The Saxon Shore forts present a number ofarchaeological and historical problems.This is largely because they appear as aunified system in the late Romandocument, the Notitia Dignitatum, butarchaeology and structural analysis haveshown that they were not built at the sametime. We will visit by coach Reculver,Richborough, Dover, Lympne,Pevensey, and Portchester with TonyWilmott, a leading expert on Romanforts. Based at Canterbury the cost forthe three days is £99 which onlyincludes coach and all entrance fees.

Sept 19th,20th, 21st,DiocletiansPalace at Split,The palace of theEmperor Diocletianat Split in Croatia

is today the heart of the inner city of Split.Join archaeologist, Dr Paul Wilkinson, on along weekend trip that brings the glory ofthis Imperial residence to life. This ‘nofrills’ holiday costs £150, does not includeflights or hotel but does include all

entrance fees, a local guide and ferry to the off-shore islands and coach or bus to the nearbyRoman towns of Salona and Trogir. For furtherinformation on hotels and flights email PaulWilkinson at [email protected]

Roman & Classical Greece, October 10thto 17th (TBA)The ultimate trip! We will visit Athens andCorinth, one of the largest and best preservedRoman towns in the world, Delphi, Olympia,

Sparta, Mistra, Mycenae,Epidaurus, and lots lotsmore. All inclusiveRoman Holiday price is£1775 per person.

December 5th to 11th,Roman GermanyRoman Germanica

formed the hard-won eastern frontier of theEmpire. This is a two-centre trip to the heart ofRoman Germanica. Our tour, guided by DrPaul Wilkinson, begins in Cologne, Germany’soldest city, with its innumerable cultural andhistorical treasures, world-famous museumsand active art scene. Our second centre is Trier,one of the most important cities in the RomanEmpire. The all-inclusive price with RomanHolidays is £998 per person.


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K A F S C O U R S E S

landscape by studying the development of fieldand parish boundaries. During the course of thenext weekend (July 18th & 19th) we will trace,

survey and section byexcavation and record a newsignificant bank and ditchboundary (left) in the verybest traditions of Time-Team.This is a recently identifiedenigmatic field and parishboundary at Radfield thatruns for 22km and dividesKent in half. Cost for eachweekend is £70 for non-members and KAFSmember’s special fee of £60.

August 7th, 8th, 9th, The Saxon Shore Forts.The Roman forts in Kent, and SussexThe Saxon Shore forts present a number ofarchaeological and historical problems. This islargely because they appear as a unified system inthe late Roman document, the Notitia Dignitatum,but archaeology and structural analysis haveshown that they were not built at the same time. We will visit by coach Reculver, Richborough,Dover, Lympne, Pevensey, and Portchester withTony Wilmott of English Heritage, a leadingexpert on Roman Saxon Shore forts. Based atCanterbury the cost for the three days is £99which includes coach and all entrance fees butdoes not include accommodation or meals.

August 31st to September 18th, Excavation atthe Roman Baths at Bax Farm, Teynham,KentSee page 29 for details.

September 12th & 13th, An introduction toAnglo-Saxon potteryThe course, led by Paul Blinkhorn, will introducestudents to the practical problems of identifyingAnglo-Saxon pottery. The types of pottery fromeach period will be explained and will beavailable for examination. Cost for the weekend is£70 for non-members and £60 for KAFS members.

September 19th, 20th, 21st. Field Trip toDiocletians Palace at Split, CroatiaThe palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Split inCroatia is today the heart of the inner city of Split.Join archaeologist, Dr Paul Wilkinson, on a longweekend trip that brings the glory of thisImperial residence to life. This ‘no frills’ holidaycosts £150, does not include flights or hotel butdoes include all entrance fees, a local guide andferry to the offshore islands and coach or bus tothe nearby Roman town of Salona and Trogir. Forfurther information on hotels and flights emailPaul Wilkinson at [email protected]

October 3rd & 4th An introduction to Romanpottery The course, led by Malcolm Lyne and members ofthe Study Group for Roman Pottery, will introducestudents to the practical problems of identifyingRoman pottery. The types of pottery from eachperiod will be explained and will be available forexamination. Cost for the weekend is £70 for non-members and £60 for KAFS members.

October 17th & 18th, Artefact DrawingA beginner’s and refresher course introducingparticipants to drawing archaeological artefacts.There will be practical sessions each daydemonstrating how to illustrate pottery, bone,metal. Course led by Jane Russell, who was seniorillustrator of the UCL Field Archaeology Unit.

December 5th to 11th, Roman GermanySee page 31 for details.


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March 7th & 8th, Field Walking and Map Analysis KAFS members free. £40 for non-members Easter, April 10th to April 17th, KAFS members £20 per dayExcavation of Roman buildings at Blacklands non-members £30 per day.April 18th & 19th, Bones and Burials KAFS members £60. £70 for non-members May 2nd to May 4th, Introduction to Archaeology KAFS members £50, non-members £70May 16th & 17th, The Practical Study of Stone Tools KAFS members £60. £70 for non-members May 24th to June 19th, Excavation of the Roman Palace at Oplontis, Pompeii £175 per weekJuly 11th & 12th, Landscape Archaeology KAFS members £60. £70 for non-members July 18th & 19th, Landscape Archaeology KAFS new members £60. £70 for non-members August 7th, 8th, 9th, The Saxon Shore Forts. The Roman forts in Kent, and Sussex £99 per personAugust 31st to September 18th, KAFS members £20 per day,Excavation at the Roman Baths at Bax Farm non-members £30 per day.Monday September 7th to Friday 11th , KAFS new members special fee £20 per day,Archaeological Training Week at Bax Farm. non-members £30 per day.September 12th & 13th,An introduction to Anglo-Saxon pottery KAFS members £60. £70 for non-members September 19th, 20th, 21st, Field Trip to Diocletians Palace at Split, Croatia £150 per personOctober 3rd & 4th, An introduction to Roman pottery KAFS members £60. £70 for non-members October 17th & 18th, Artefact Drawing KAFS members £60. £70 for non-members October 10th to 17th, Roman & Classical Greece (TBA) £1775 per personDecember 5th to 11th, Roman Germany £998 per person

Name and Date of Courses (highlight above)……………...........................................................................Your Name………………………………………..............................................................................................Address………………………………………………………………………………………………………....….................................................................................................……………………………………………….………Postcode…………………Tel No...............................................E-mail................................................I enclose a cheque (payable to KAFS)for…………........................................................................................................................................................Please return this form with full payment to:–The Kent Archaeological Field School, School Farm Oast, Graveney Road, Faversham, Kent ME138UP. Tel: 01795 532548 Website: www.kafs.co.uk E-mail: [email protected] note that courses are only bookable in advance and are non-refundable or transferable. Member’s discount does not apply to special fees and field trips. Children

under 16 years old are welcome on courses, but must be accompanied by an adult; under-16s are not allowed on excavations.

B O O K I N G F O R M


M E M B E R S H I P F O R M

PracticalArchaeology

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‘Practical Archaeology’ is publishedfor members of the KAFS. We havedoubled the number of pages sincethe last copy and have justintroduced colour. We hope thatyou enjoy the new look of theonce-yearly magazine.Membership for a single personis £15, for two adults it is £25,and family membership (twoadults and two children under16 years old*) is £30. Foroverseas membership pleaseadd £5. Membership entitlesyou to a discount oncourses at the KAFS,except for special fees andfield trips. Please return

the completed form to:Kent Archaeological Field School,School Farm Oast, Graveney

Road, Faversham, Kent, ME13 8UP.

*Please note that children under 16 years oldare welcome on courses, if accompanied by an adult, but under-16s are not allowed on excavations.

BANKERS ORDER (FOR MEMBERSHIP)(Please return to us and NOT to your bank)To.............................................................................................................................…………… (Name of your bank)...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................(Your branch address)

Please pay to the Midland Bank, 281 Chiswick High Road, W4 (40-02-13) for the account of ‘Practical Archaeology’(A/c No. 61241001) the sum of £................ on the date of receipt of this form and thereafter the same amount annually on the same date until further notice.Your Name..........................................................................................................Type of membership........................................Your Address.......................................................................................................................................................……........................................................................................................................................................................Postcode.......................................Your Account number......................................Your sort code............................................. Tel. no...........................................Signature..................................................................................................Date................................................................................


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