Located in the central part of the excavated area, during investigations associated with the construction of the Ramsgate Harbour Approach road in 1997/1998 was a series of three, possibly four or five, concentric arcs of discontinuous groups of cut features. These features were understood to represent part of a ‘causewayed enclosure’ of Early Neolithic Date. A series of five roughly circular pits formed part of the feature. They seemed to be set in a concentric arc set back 2-3m from the southern side of the northern part of the Middle Arc. The pits, between 0.5 and 0.9m broad and 0.2-0.5m deep did not display any evidence of post-pipes. Two similar pits, which lay slightly to the north of the putative arc alignment, closer to the segments of the Middle Arc, may also be associated.

Generally the finds assemblage from within the fills of the pits was small, mainly with a few flint blades and/or flakes. One pit produced two blades and three hammerstones (along with small amounts of charcoal, grain and seeds). The flint tool assemblage from the fill of one of the pits however, suggests that this small feature was the focus for a ‘placed deposit’; 46 worked flints recovered from the pit included seven blades (five burnt), 28 flakes (eleven burnt), a utilised and a serrated flake/blade and nine fragments of knapping debris (three burnt), as well as six heat-affected unworked pieces. Unidentifiable crumbs of pottery were also recovered from this fill, along with some 40 fragments of heat-affected clay, small quantities of charcoal and grain and traces of mammal bone and oyster shell.

It is possible that they may represent part of the fourth arc, located between the inner and middle arcs, either as part of the association of features constituting the Middle Arc or as a separate feature echoing the geometry of the main arcs in a different form. Certainly, the putative alignment varied much in terms of its distance from what was, after all, a quite varied alignment of Middle Arc features. The variation in distance between the pits is less marked, and it is this that might lead us suspect some sort of design in their layout (albeit from a qualitative perspective). There was little sign of a similar arrangement associated with the southern part of the Middle Arc (Segments 1-3), though a single isolated pit just north of Segment 3 may represent a return of the putative arc, the rest lost to truncation. (information summarised from source (1-2)

<1> 2019, Chalk Hill - Neolithic and Bronze Age Discoveries at Ramsgate, Kent (Monograph). SKE56208.

<2> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1997, Excavations at Chalk Hill, near Ramsgate, Kent 1997-98: Integrated assessment & updated research design (Unpublished document). SKE29640.