Excavations carried out between 1998-2001 at the Saltwood Tunnel and Stone Farm Bridleway sites, by Canterbury Archaeology Trust and Wessex Archaeology, as part of the CTRL works.

Late Bronze Age / Early Iron Age funary, domestic, and agricultural landscapes.

An area around the eastern-most Early Bronze Age barrow (TR 13 NE 214) (one of the two larger barrows) appears to have been utilised as a funerary environment. A small sub-square enclosure lies to the east of the barrow, orientated with the adjacent field system, and is associated with features containing cremated bone. A cremation lies within, but is stratigraphically earlier than, the enclosure and is not central within the enclosure. A single cremation lies 250m to the SW (not associated with a barrow), with a further 5 confirmed and 2 possible cremations within and around the large barrow to the west. These later 7 cremations are spatially dated, but could date to the Late Iron Age / Early Roman period due their location next to a trackway (TR 13 NE 220) of that date.

Settlement is focused around one or two partially identified sub-rectangular enclosures in the centre of the excavated area. The enclosures appear to be delimited by both ditches and a small section of a post line, though the relative dating is unknown. A large number of post-holes to the west of one of the enclosures may represent a series of fence-lines or small structures, though the form of any is unclear. They could represent the western side of an enclosure, the exact line of which varied over time. Additional ditches suggest a field system, which respects the position of the earlier barrows. A number of pits with cinder-capping were noted (the cinder-capping acting as an odour plug on refuge pits). Additional pits and post-holes suggest a settlement focus. It is possible that the trackways (TR 13 NE 220) that are more prominent in later phases have their origins in this phase. (1)

Additional bibliography. (2-3)

<1> Wessex Archaeology, 2002, Saltwood Tunnel Post Excavation Assessment Report (Unpublished document). SKE16613.

<2> Wessex Archaeology, 2004, Channel Tunnel Rail Link: Archaeological Works at Stone Farm Bridleway - Interim Fieldwork Report (Unpublished document). SKE16606.

<3> Oxford Wessex Archaeology Joint Venture, 2006, The prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon funerary landscape at Saltwood Tunnel, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE16617.