Monument record TR 37 SE 350 - Roman features and artefacts, Dane Hill, Margate

Eight of the nine archaeological features recorded on site contained pottery with a consistent area of overlap of around 150-175 AD. The remaining feature was undated (see TR 37 SE 352). One of the eight was interpreted as late industrial or modern (19th or 20th century) pit, containing residual finds including iron age and Roman pottery and fragments of lava quernstone (separate monument record not created). These are presumed to have worked their way into the feature as it was backfilled. Another later feature recorded was a section of 19th century tunnel (see TR 37 SE 351). The remaining 6 features were all of Roman date. Five were grouped together as the remains of a timber post built structure. This consisted of four circular ?post pits in a square arrangement, all containing 2nd century pottery, dug into a terrace feature. This terrace was interpreted as an attempt to create a level platform to site the four pits on, which in turn acted as the foundations of a wooden structure. The fills of the terrace also contained 2nd century pottery. The majority of the Roman features contained residual iron age pottery (see TR 37 SE 349). The four ?post pits also contained shell, animal bone, burnt flint, burnt daub, Niedermendig lava quernstone and a great number of large, beach-sourced flints, the majority of which had struck facets and may have been used in building work. Fragments of faced chalk blocks were also recorded, presumably worked for a similar reason. There was little evidence that the posts had rotted in situ. The other Roman feature recorded was a small sub-rectangular pit. Dated by a single sherd of pottery, the pit contained a 'cache' of three rounded flint pebbles. One pebble was unused, another showed the early signs of hammering in a small area and the third had been extensively used as a hammerstone. One face has been flaked and not hammered to provide a platform to set this hammerstone on a flat surface. Similar pebbles have been identified on an iron age site at North Foreland. The report suggests that either the Roman pot sherd is residual and the feature is iron age in date, or the hammerstones were used into the Roman period. The pebbles were found together in a small cache, although the report concedes that they could also be a coincidental group. The pottery record suggests that Roman activity was continuous throughout the 2nd century AD and may have lasted into the mid 3rd century [1].
See also Monument records TR 37 SE 348, 349, 351 and 352 for information on the prehistoric flint, the iron age and post medieval archaeology recorded on site.

<1> Trust for Thanet Archaeology, 2004, Land to the rear of 16-18 Dane Hill, Margate, Kent. Archaeological Watching Brief Report (Unpublished document). SKE12560.