|
Victoria
County History of Kent Vol. 3
1932 - Romano-British
Kent - Towns - Page 91
|
destroyed in 192 1—2, at the east end of Winfield
Bank (north of the road and east of the railway) 61—may have
related to funeral monuments; but, in spite of the poverty of the records,
it is tolerably clear also that more than one house, with walls wholly or
partly of cemented rubble, flanked the Wailing Street hereabouts.
The burials and ‘small finds’ are, as usual, somewhat
better recorded than the structures. Since the beginning of the last
century, burials both by incineration and by inhumation have been found in
some numbers on both sides of the main road. Some of these burials are
specially noteworthy. Thus, in Sole Field lay a stone tomb, 6 ft. 2 in.
long, 4 ft. 5 in. wide, and 1 ft. 9 in. deep, covered with two large
stones, to each of which an iron handle was fixed with lead. Inside were
two plain lead coffins which had apparently at one time been enclosed in
wood. Each coffin contained the bones of a small child. With one was a
gold chain resembling a fob-chain, originally set with bluish green stones
and pearls, with three pendants; also a pair of gold bracelets with
terminals in the form of serpents’ heads, and a gold finger-ring with a
conical setting. These relics are now in the British Museum, as are others
from another burial found near by. At a depth of about 3 ft. a ragstone
pavement was uncovered, beneath the middle of which was a large stone box
and lid. The interior of the
|
|

Fig.16 Leather shoe found at Springhead
(⅛)
(From B. M. Guide
to Antiquities of Rom. Brit.)
|
box was cut into oval form and contained two large
glass urns. Both urns contained burnt bones, and one had been filled up
with a ‘ clear liquid ‘ which still remained. Between the urns were
two pairs of shoes of purple leather with elaborate openwork pattern
enriched with gold thread (fig. 16). Outside and flanking the stone
box, also under the pavement, were large urns
|
|
containing ashes. Close by, again, was another
cremation burial, consisting of two pottery jugs and two Samian dishes
(form 31, one stamped by the 2nd-century potter, GRANIANVS)
placed in a recess formed by the smooth ends of four stones and covered by
a larger one. In one of the dishes were two rib-bones and ashes, whilst
immediately under it had been placed a wooden box, represented now only by
its bronze mounts (British Museum). The foundations of a buttressed
inclosure wall surrounded these burials, which lay thus in a squarish
space about 58 ft. by 55˝. ft., the whole apparently representing a
walled cemetery of a type found elsewhere in Kent (see pp. 98, 144, 158
and P1. XIV, No. 1).
Several other burials have been recorded. Most of them were
by cremation, but others, by inhumation, were also probably Roman. The
most recent discoveries of the kind are a woman’s skeleton found with
3rd- or 4th-century pottery in Winfield Bank, and a male skeleton, found
with an iron key, on the south side of the main road opposite Pepperhill
Lane, in 192-2.62
61 R. F. Jessup, Antiq.
Journ. viii, 338.
62 For the Springhead burials generally, see
Gough MSS. (Bodley), 1802, ii, 921; C. R. Smith, Coll. Antiq, 110,
and iii, 54 ; Arch. xiv, 37, 22! ; J. Dunkin, Springhead Memo. p.
144, etc.; Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ. v, 361 ; R. F. Jessup, Antiq.
Journ. viii, 337.
|
Previous Page
Page 91 Next Page
For details about the advantages of membership of the Kent
Archaeological Society click
here
Back to Towns page listings
Back to Contents Page
Back to
Research Back
to Homepage
Kent Archaeological
Society is a registered charity number 223382
© Kent Archaeological Society May 2006
This website is constructed by
enthusiastic amateurs. Any errors noticed by other researchers will be
to gratefully received so
that we can amend our pages to give as accurate a record as possible.
Please send details to research@kentarchaeology.org.uk
|