The medieval features on Thanet Earth dated to between the mid-eleventh century to the early part of the fourteenth (possibly extending to AD 1350). The activity is primarily agricultural in nature with significant elements of domestic occupation. A site wide system of enclosures appears to be intimately related to various trackways across the site. The activity around these enclosures has been grouped into a number of Medieval ‘sites’. Site 9 consisted of a partially exposed ditched enclosure, of which the south-western half had been incompletely eroded away at a later date. The site bore a resemblance to settlement sites elsewhere on Thanet Earth with a definite enclosed area encircling a variety of structures and other settlement features such as pits and a well. Though dating evidence was sparse, it is likely that activity in this area dates to c. 1075-1175.

‘the few sherds of pottery associated with this enclosure span the later twelfth to mid thirteenth centuries but the groups are never large’. A radiocarbon date from a well in the complex returned a value of AD 894–1117 (at 95 per cent probability; Table 6, UBA-22213), so it is quite possible that the entire settlement was actually earlier (of Phase 2, AD 1075–1175) with the recovered pottery introduced during rubbish disposal after its abandonment.

The central and exposed southern part of the enclosed area was truncated, rather more shallowly, by an extensive zone of erosion. Whether this was due to protracted activity within or by deliberate reduction was not certain, but some features had been completed eroded or heavily truncated as a result. One possibility was that the enclosure was used for keeping stock once settlement activities had ceased, which may have necessitated the backfilling of any residual open features. The erosive episode probably occurred in Phase 4 after occupation of the site had ceased. Externally to the north, but possibly related to this area, and partially truncated by that sites quarrying, were two very large post-holes about 5.5m apart that may have represented a substantial timber framed structure, possibly a barn. The post-holes were of similar size and separation as those in a better preserved barn-like building on Plateau 4 Within the northern part of the enclosure was a strange multi compartmented sunken-featured structure (parallel to the enclosure ditch) that could have been of domestic function. It was certainly large enough for habitation and although the sunken areas were quite irregular, was possibly designed with the two-thirds to a third ratio evident in some of the other structures. Immediately to the south the erosion had removed most of yet another structure, of which only the oven base survived, but this was almost certainly another Type 1 building.
(1) (information summarised from source)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2023, Beneath the Seamark: 6000 Years of an Islands History (Monograph). SKE55405.