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Victoria County History of Kent Vol. 3  1932 - Romano-British Kent - Topographical Index - Page 155

stantine, 4 Constantius II, 1 Constantinopolis, 1 Crispus, 2 Magnentius, 62 Valentinian, 6 Gratian, 118 Theodosius, 3 Magnus Maximus, 107 Arcadius, 51 Honorius, 1 Urbs Roma type. As the latest coins seem to be of Honorius (395—425 A.D.) this hoard may well have been deposited shortly after Honorius bade the British states and cities look after themselves and Britain ceased to be a Roman province. [Arch. Cant. xxviii, proc. p. xciv.] A Roman cemetery was found on high ground a little north-east of Burnt Oak. The burials were deposited in a straight line and had the appearance of a filled-up trench. One narrow-mouthed jar, containing burnt bones, had its neck broken off and was covered with a patera; by it were two other vessels. All the pottery was Upchurch with the exception of a Samian cup and patera, stamped CALENVS and REBVRRVS. Similar deposits had occurred before in making the cutting for the pier. [Gent’s Mag. 1868, i, 85.] Perhaps the mouth of a large jar and rude ware in the Maidstone Museum come from these burials. [Arch. Cant. ix, proc. p. xxxiv.] In 1913 a cremation burial was found in Barnsole Lane, south-east of Gillingham, 6 ft. from the surface and below a layer containing burnt earth and animal bones. [Arch. Cant. xxxi,, 282.] See also Chatham, Rainham and Luton.
   GILTON.—For the Roman objects in the Saxon cemetery, see Ash, near Sandwich.
   GODMERSHAM.—See Crundale.
   GOODWIN SANDS.—A large dolium, 2 ft. diameter, was drawn up by a trawler off the Goodwins. [Arch. Journ. xxiv, 383.] Perhaps the same as a dolium 2˝ ft. high, 5 ft 9 in. circumference, 16 galls. capacity, dredged up in 1860 by a Hull trawler; marine incrustations are still on it. [G. B. Gattie, Mem. of Goodwin Sands (1890), 86.] This seems to be now in Hull Museum. [Eastern Morning News, 7 Dec. 1907; Hull Mus. Catal. No. 17.]
   GRAIN, ISLE OF.—Roman interments were found on land that is submerged at high tide in making Slough Fort, October, 1891. They consisted of a buff-coloured urn with bones, 5 Upchurch urns and 2 dishes, 5 small Samian saucers, a large red urn and a clay stopper, nearly all in fragments. [Arch. Cant. xxi, proc. p. i; Proc. Soc. Antiq. xiv, p. 32.] See also Higham, Hoo and Cliffe-at-Hoo.
   GRAVENEY.—Cinerary urns are said. to have been found here. [Reliq. xiii (1872), p. 145; Arch. Cant. ix, proc. p. lxxii.] 
   GRAVESEND.—TWO British coins of Dubnovellaunus and Tasciovanus were found here. [C. R. Smith, Coll. Ant. i, 6, p1. v, figs. 11, 12; Evans, Anc. British Coins, p. 204.] A burial group was discovered in the back garden of 27, King’s Drive, King’s Farm Estate, Gravesend, in November, 1930. A wide-mouthed urn, imperfectly calcined, containing human bones stood on a saucer of black ware, and there were in addition three Samian vessels, a cup (33) stamped APRILI.M, a dish stamped BAN0LVCCI, a large shallow platter stamped AELIANUS, a one handled flagon of red ware coated with cream slip, two small poppy-head beakers of soft grey clay, and a vase of soft brick-red clay with narrow neck, slight foot, and carination at bulge, and one or two other vessels in fragments. [Kent Messenger, Oct. 25, 1930.] The pottery is in Gravesend Library; it is to be published in Arch. Cant. A second-century Samian patera found in Gravesend in 1844 is in the British Museum.
   GREENHITHE.—In 1879, a pear-shaped cave, 22—23 ft. wide and 35 ft. deep, was opened on the Greenhithe Chalk Company’s lands. It was filled up with a mass of sand and gravel containing a large number of bones of horse, ox, dog, deer, pig, birds, mice and bos longi cornis, coarse Roman potsherds, and a few bits of Samian, one stamped LICINIVS. The sides were roughly worked with a pick, but no flints were found. There were also found a piece of fine white tile, a floor-brick, iron, a piece of an iron hook, a small ferrule, 2 carved bone sockets and 2 worked stones for making pottery. Beneath all, on the pit floor, were 3 skeletons lying side by side, one being that of a middle-aged man. A pipe or narrow shaft in the gravel on one side of the entrance shaft projected into the cave and perhaps provided ventilation. In the neighbourhood of the cave, on the surface, were human bones, thickly bedded in wood ash, flint flakes, and pottery. It has been supposed that Romano-British dwellings existed near these caves and when they were destroyed the remains were, thrown down the pit. A silver coin of Hadrian was found 5 ft. deep in a plantation 100 yds. away. [Arch. Journ. xxxvii, 193—4, xxxviii, 400 ; hence Arch. Cant. xviii, 307. For a similar discovery, see Crayford.] A Roman urn and earthen bottle were found with other sepulchral remains, 50 yds. north of a supposed Roman road in December, 1846. [Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc. ii (1847), 363.] The late Mr. G. M. Arnold had 2 buckles, 2 early fibulae and rude pottery from Greenhithe in his collection.
   GREENSTREET GREEN (near Dartford).—See Darenth, Upchurch, and Ospringe (p. 93).
   GREENWICH.—Villa, see p. 116. The barrows in Greenwich Park contained no Roman remains. For the fragments of an Arretine cup said to have been found at Greenwich Railway Terminus in 1841, see ‘Country houses,’ p. 117, note 33, above. The London Museum possesses a fine bronze lamp found in the Thames off Greenwich. [London in Roman Times (1930), p. 62.]

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