Update on the East Malling Religious Sanctuary

Description: In late 2021 Maidstone Area Archaeological Group, (MAAG), started exploring a Roman site at East Malling. Since our last KAS bulletin in 2022, we have gained access to more of the site and used ground penetrating radar to map out further features. The story that is emerging is that of a multi-phased religious site focussed on the sacred water from the nearby spring. But this is a large site with many unresolved questions still to be answered, so that narrative may have to be refined as new information is revealed.

Transcript: All right, good evening everyone. Uh, it is two minutes past, so we're going to get started. Thank you all so much for joining us tonight. Um, I hope you've all been having the most wonderful summer. It's almost over, of course, as we've seen by the rain today. It's all it's coming soon enough. We'll be trick-or-treating, lighting bonfires, and watching Christmas movies, I'm sure. But for now, I'm glad we can enjoy the last of summer together. sort of indoors on our computers, but there's still a little bit of sunshine out my window here. Um, I took a a little bit of leave um recently, so apologies if I've been a bit off the radar. I've been doing some studies, which um is very stressful, as I'm sure you will all notice by the fact that all my hair has disappeared. But I am back and diving headlong into Kent Heritage once more. So, you can all get in touch with me again if there's anything you you'd like to share. So, this is I think the 13th or maybe the 14th in the series. Is that right, Jacob? Um, if you've ever dreamt of being a time traveler, we can help because you can venture back in time and watch any of the incredible lectures we've had so far, all accessible on our amazing YouTube channel. So, if you've missed any, please do go and check them out. The team at the society continue to work hard to bring you all the latest news, features, events, and archaeology of the county. The website is ever enlarging with resources, and our collections are being well cared for and utilized. And we've got lots of great projects on the horizon as well. So, um, I'm also working on the next newsletter. So, if anyone would like to contribute in any way, be an article or feature or news or even just thoughts, please do send me an email. Uh, I'll leave my email address in the chat box or maybe Jacob will do that for me. Now, as always, we hope to avoid any technical issues tonight, but please do bear with us. If there are any problems, Jacob is on hand to sort it all out. If you are not a member of the society, please do think about joining us. It works out at only £330 a month, less than a box of ice lollies. Uh and for that you'll receive a copy of our yearly journal Archaeology Caniana full of the most current historical and archaeological research in the county. You'll also get our bannual magazine, regular newsletters, exclusive access to our collections, conferences, and selected events. Opportunities to get involved in excavations and research projects. Um, and you will allow us to keep putting out content such as these free online talks, outreach in schools, community groups, and seminars, which we hope brings the uh benefit of Kent history and heritage to everybody. Check the website for details on how you can become a member or how you can get involved. Housekeeping. Uh, the talk tonight will last for about an hour after which we'll have time for questions if you have any. Could you I ask you all please to keep yourselves on mute and with your cameras off throughout so we can concentrate on our speaker nice and clearly during the Q&A. You can either raise uh your hands with the raise hand feature and we will unmute you um and you can ask your question personally or if you prefer which most people do you can type your question into the chat box and I will read it out for you. I hope it goes without saying but please be courteous and polite to our speaker and to each other. We will be recording the session and it may be posted to our video channels in the future, but no personal data will be shared. Uh, and if you ask a question but would prefer it not to be published, just send us an email saying so and we'll make sure it's not included. Right. So, on to our speaker. Dr. Steven Clifton has had an illustrious and varied career. He holds an abundance of qualifications including a BA honors in radio, film and television and education from the University of Kent, a BA honors in fine art from the University of Kent, a master of arts in archaeology with distinction from the University of Kent and uh very recently he has successfully achieved his doctor of philosophy, a PhD in archaeology. Um congratulations and and I'm fairly sure that was from the University of Kent. It was a very loyal studentship there. Steven's career path has seen a fascinating range of roles from station assistant at the BBC to a senior program assistant for the arts channel and a general manager for Bravo TV. He worked as a press officer and information officer, a project manager for internal communications and a brand guardian and design manager at New Scotland Yard for the Metropolitan Police. And of course he is also an archaeologist for the Trust for Thanet archaeology and importantly for the research he will talk to us about today. He is a site director and archaeologist for the Maidstone area archaeological group. It's Steven's work on a site in Kent that has been the focus for many years and also part of his PhD thesis discovering ritual landscapes in rural Roman southern Britain with particular reference to Kent. Stephen was a a trustee for the society um a few years back. I'm actually been thinking like with a background in the police and art and TV and archaeology, I'm kind of hoping we might see like a brand new drama series on the horizon from him. Like a mysterious kind of moody archaeologist artist solving baffling and brutal crimes in East Mauling's historic dark corners. What do you think? Yeah, maybe we could convince Jacob to be the uh villain like a blowoff character. Just needs a cat. I think this has got legs. We could. Yeah. Anyway, back to tonight. Uh Steven is an incredibly knowledgeable and exciting academic and archaeologist. Um and before we'd even properly met, he kindly invited me around the site at East Ming the site East Moling in his spare time just because I asked and he was so welcoming and so happy to share his ideas and expertise. Um and he's a top bloke. So, I'm really excited to hear more about this amazing site from him this evening. Steven is over to you. Uh, thank you. Uh, right. Right. Uh good evening. Um so uh tonight I'm going to be um giving you an update on what uh the Maidstone area archaeological group have been doing uh since we started uh in East Morning since uh 2021. Um I did give um a uh a talk to the uh KAS in 2022 um but obviously we've uh we've moved on quite a bit since then. So this is uh by way of an update. So, first of all, for anybody who's uh doesn't really uh know, um East Mauling um sits in a large bend of the river uh Medway and just um in here and it sits about um equidistant from uh Eckles to the north and Ton and East Barley. uh to the south. Um it all of the other Roman sites in uh in this area tend to be clustered around uh the river Medway. Um, East Morning is slightly different is in that it's a little bit further away. And the reason why it's probably situated here will be due to the um the spring on the top of the hill uh to the south of the site in East Ming. So here we are. Um the site is uh centered around the East Mauling um aotments um in here and um here we have um St. James the Great Church which um apparently dates back to uh to Norman times although it is suggested that there may be some Saxon origins. Uh in here we have uh the Graange which is um a new housing development which was built in the uh late 60s or early 70s um and replaced um a very nice uh Victorian rectory um which stood on the site. Um at the time uh most of the land uh around here and certainly where the site is at the moment uh was owned by the East Ming Agricultural Research Station. Um at sometime in the early 80s uh this land here was transferred uh to the um parish council um and that's when they uh created the allotments here and um the uh the car park as well. So our story really begins um in 1955 um when there was some excavations um in the uh grounds of the uh vic. Um these uh excavations were undertaken by um uh some enthusiastic members of the um uh agricultural research station in cahoots with um members of uh Maidstone Museum. and um the results of their endeavors um they were able to persuade the Ministry of Works that this was a serious um and interesting uh site. Um and so subsequently um the Ministry of Works um did their own excavations in 1965. In 1955, um what was um was found was a corner of a uh ragstone wall um with um a drain running through it. Um there was also a number of um artifacts recovered um and um that some of those were quite impressive. The 1965 excavation, as you can see, covers a much larger area. All of these trenches were trial trenches which were dug by um mechanical excavator and um in most of these there don't seem to have been any um any finds recorded. However, there was a concentration of activity um in this corner here uh with a continuation of this wall uh for about uh 20 m and uh part of a floor and a couple of um ditches. There were also some um some evidence um of Iron Age activity. And if you look on the Historic England uh uh website, you'll find that it's um that it's described as an Iron Age um enclosure um with a minor Roman villa. So that's what they thought they had found in in the 50s and 60s. So, these are a couple of uh images from uh the 1955 excavation. Here you can see the corner. Um this one's perhaps clearer. You can see it there with um a supposed drain coming through here. They're not very clear, I have to say. Um the finds um uh we have some uh pottery, some mortaria, um some samian, um some testry, and perhaps most uh impressive of all, this um large chunk of um uh mosaic. Um it's it's in fact curved. Um, at the moment it's on display in Maidstone Museum. Um, at the time it was thought it was probably part of um a wall um decoration. Um, but I think since then it's be it's now thought that it might be some sort of um edging to this um is a photograph from the 1965 excavation and you can see here a continuation of that wall. I think there is um they thought at the time that they um had a possible doorway through here. Uh I'm not sure whether that's true. Um and then there is also um a floor um under here um which I think um uh was later um cleared and um um identified. This is looking uh southeast I believe. So um on the strength of um those two early excavations um uh an area was scheduled um i.e. um a large um um area of the land was um supposedly protected. Um, as you can see, it's largely um uh an arbitrary uh rectangle um based on um the f the um excavations which took place about um here. Uh the Maidstone group were called in in uh 2021 um because um some vegetation had been cleared um over here. This land uh being owned um by the uh parish council and some of these trees and bushes had been cleared. Um, and they were worried that there might be some um archaeological uh remains that might be disturbed if they tried to um grub out the uh the roots. Our first uh job um on finding uh pieces of um Roman roof tile and uh Roman pottery was to um set about doing some resistivity work um to see if there was anything else of of of note in this area. So you can see this area which was the cleared area is about 20 m wide. And um this is uh the area that um that we were able to cover. We've got a couple of um large um uh anomalous areas. Um and you can see uh we put in two fairly uh arbitrary um 2x two trenches over these to see whether we had anything of any note. In both trenches, we came down onto uh walls um which appeared to be of uh Roman date. In one uh trench, you can see here we've got two uh parallel walls and in between um what appears to be um a sort of roadway surface. So once we found this and we and we started um exploring this area um we had the opportunity to extend our resistivity work um and so that's what we set about doing. So we were able to cover um probably about um half of the aotment plot. You can imagine that there are a lot of obstacles um when doing resistivity work um in an aotment. Lots of sheds and um uh other um obstacles which even in the middle of winter um we couldn't uh we couldn't shift. But having said that, we did manage to get uh a sizable area um covered. Um you can see there's a lot of things here that looked very exciting. You know, these these lines here um some over here, they look very wonderful. But in fact um all of these uh lines that you can see um have turned out to be um associated with the a lotments. So they are modern surface uh anomalies. Um much of the um the problem I think is that the ground um is um is shallower um towards the south and as as you move towards the north the uh the ground does get deep deeper the top soil does get deeper. So it um it tends not to pick up a lot of the um anomalies which we um which we were later able to identify. But you can see there's a very nice square building down here, a square um structure of some description. And um if you can see here, there's um a wall apparently running right the way through the middle of it. And if you squint a bit, you can see that it does actually run right the way through the allotments. and it's on a slightly different alignment. So instead of uh north south um it's um slightly northeasts southwest. So everything that's on that um alignment tends to be associated or uh with with this with these um uh features and tends to be um of the Roman period. You could also see um if again if you look very carefully that there's um some lines which run across here. There are in fact three of them. Um and those tally up with our parallel lines um and our roadway which we found in that first trench. So we decided to um concentrate on the uh the large square building initially. Um and so here you can see um a three this is a 3D scan about halfway through our um excavation process. You can see that straight line, straight wall coming right the way through the middle. Um you've then got um walls um actually built up against that um that central uh wall um with um butresses. And so there's a buttress here, another but buttress here, and another one here. Curiously, um, no buttress on this fourth, uh, fourth wall. Um, in the center, well, it's off, um, uh, off center, I suppose. Um, we had a, um, a pit here which contained a lot of, uh, iron working um, slag and, um, one um, very nice bone uh, needle. Over here we've got um uh the remains of an oven um some metal metal flooring and this area here um constituted um a large spread of um stone and uh again uh metalling metal surface here to the south of um this um initial building. We came across um another building here um which appears to be um constructed largely of timber posts um using the the other um existing walls here. So almost like a leantomb building um with possibly a large timber opening or timber doorway uh on this side. This process um I believe is occium which is um basically timber posts infilled with uh masonry. Um, a lot of this, uh, uh, masonry work on this building, um, has been used, uh, uses, uh, twofer. Um, and, um, it does allow for, um, a lot more, um, finer, um, construction, which, um, uh, ragstone uh, doesn't usually do. So um so what we had in in fact was um a large um uh entrance building and we were able to identify a doorway here. Um this is on the outside of the enclosure. Uh this doorway is um approximately 1.7 m wide. There's a corresponding doorway on the other side um which is about um 4.3 m wide. Um, and it appears that um it may have been uh blocked up or at least um the entrance may have been narrowed um perhaps to correspond with this this opening here. Um and you can see quite clearly the um uh the walls running away from the entrance uh or the uh uh sort of internal entrance I suppose um to this building. These two walls appear to be um parallel to each other. And um the um the metalling in between forms this um path or causeway. The um the walls and the causeway uh don't appear to be contemporary with each other. So it it would seem that the uh walls uh were probably built uh much later. Um and in fact as you move towards the building there's much less of the walls uh remaining um almost just um uh sections of foundations along here whereas the um the metal causeway uh does seem to continue. Um, we've also been looking at a large area to the south of the um of building 2. Um, and this area seems to be um uh predominantly um an area of um uh ritualized activity. We've got lots of um ovens and hearths. Um small altars. Um lots of areas of um burning. Um uh lots of um little clusters of um broken pottery. Um burnt bone and usually some sort of object in the center. um probably when it was deposited they would have been nice shiny objects. So we've had um brooches, we've had uh keys, we've had um little pieces of copper alloy um and a couple of um small fragments of bronze um as well as um some iron objects as well. Um inside the um the secondary building there were two um uh morted bases, circular morted bases. Um and they may have formed um the base of um some pedestals. Um you can imagine that there might have been um some sort of um uh statueette or um uh object of devotion um placed on those So, um here you can see um some of the areas um under excavation. Here's one of the small hearths. Um and alongside this there were um a couple of um copper alloy objects were found. Um here's another one over here. This is an almost circular area of um of burnt clay. Um on top of this um there were also a couple of um uh podali tiles um which um had represent um a later usage of this area. This is all immediately um to the south of um building two. Here you can see a couple of the um the brooches which were also found very close to this building. Um curiously we also had some very nice um pieces of um uh building material. some alabaster, um some uh marble, um possibly perbeck marble, um possibly some imported marble. Um and we were also fortunate enough to find um some pieces of um insized um render. And you can see here that there was a section of wall um where this render was still in place. This is actually on the inside. Um, now whether that meant that the inside was different to the outside or whether we've just been fortunate that this um uh survived in this place is is hard to say. Most of the material that's found in this um area is uh seems to be first century. Um and um so we seem to have a very early usage um for this um sort of ritualized um area on the outside um of the uh enclosure close to the um close to the entrance. So, one of our um uh ambitions was to try and get um some um uh investigation into the um allotment areas. Obviously um this seemed like a long uh long hope because um obviously people were um growing their vegetables and um planting their spuds and things most of the time. So it was not available to us. Um but we were lucky enough that um one of the plots uh plot number five um became available and was taken over by a new couple um who uh were very interested in what we were doing. And they um allowed us to excavate um in their plot over the winter months when um there was very little um horicultural work being undertaken. So our first uh trench in this area came in in this uh sort of corner and here you can see it here. Um and straight away we came down onto a wall. Now if you look at the resistivity um results um it's very hard to see a wall that corresponds um to what we actually found. So, um I think what's happening here is it's just a little bit too deep in the ground um to come up on the survey and possibly a little bit too dry as well. So, uh we quickly um extended our our trenches um as you can see here. And um so this is that trench here after it's been extended to a certain extent. and then um a couple of other trenches put in alongside. Um this is um a 3D scan of that area. Um one of the uh um characteristics of the excavation in this area is that much of the uh um the archaeological um remains have been robbed away. Um I think what's happened is that um when this was agricultural land um if it interfered with um what was being dug, people just dug down and pulled out the um the stones. Luckily um for us um they did replace uh the stones with the the mortar and so that got put um thrown back into the hole. And so we do have this um um robber trench. Um and where we've been able to identify how old um that robbing took place, it's usually fairly fairly recent. So in the last 100 years, usually indicated by um bits of slate or um clay pipe or Victorian pottery. So, uh, we continued to explore, um, this a lotment plot and as you can see, um, we we found we came across, uh, more walls. Um, as we worked our way across the site, um, the biggest problem here was that these a lotment plots are not very big and we were constrained to this particular one. And uh dealing with the spoil heap uh was our biggest challenge, especially when it started to get a bit deeper. You can see here uh I think we're, you know, um I think we're about 60 60 cm below the ground ground surface that generates a lot of uh a lot of spoil. Um so in in this area which is um moving towards the north west of the plot um we started to come down onto something a little bit different. So you can see here um we've got um what appears to be uh some sort of door threshold. We've got a series of uh teular that have been placed in this uh apparent opening. Um suggesting that there's something on the other side. Um here you can see um we've got some ironstone blocks which have been placed here possibly to form um some sort of set of steps um moving forward. Um and then very excitingly we came across um an area of insitue tesserai u which seems to be forming part of a mosaic floor. So, um this got us very excited and um we started to extend um this trench. And here you can see um the initial uh extended trench um after we've come down onto uh the mosaic floor. Um you can also see in this early photograph um the uh um repair work that's been done very crudely. So you've got some opusinum and uh mortar which has been placed in some of these um uh these holes is where through the through the mosaic surface. We also uh came across some uh painted wall plaster. Um here you can see um um the design is uh um a dark uh red background color with these uh almost abstract uh black uh lines probably imitating um marble something of that nature. So the mosaic floor once we had um extended um a little bit further and cleaned up the floor which was a major undertaking um you can see we've got um a very simple pattern. It's just a a monochrome um design with um a simple um outer band um of black um tesserai here and an inner band here which you can just about see turns across um here and very likely would have come across here and then met up with the other one coming across on the other side. Um it's not clear what would have happened to the outer band. We we've completely lost that um towards this end. Interestingly um you can see here that the um tesserai and and um do continue um beyond this uh black banding and there does appear to be a straight line uh here. Now whether that was the end of um uh a room or whether it was um just the way that it was uh truncated is very difficult to say. Um you can see obviously um as I mentioned um we've got some repair work um very crudely done here and here and um another um section here has been um crudely um uh inserted here. This is just um uh Roman mortar. Curiously, in the center there's also evidence for um rather better quality um repair work which has been done with um the right sized tesserai. a slightly different um grout in between um the tesserai, but um clearly there was some repair work done when it was um uh when it was being used for its in its primary purpose, if you like. And then what you've got is a much later um uh um process of of repair probably just to make it um usable as a surface rather than uh without any thought to the um um to the style of the mosaic. The things to notice um here also are that the um the pattern of the mosaic is not quite parallel um with this wall here. Um and um this um wall here is very different in construction to this one. Um, this will certainly and probably that one as well have been inserted through the mosaic. And you can see here where it's been disturbed um on this side. These iron stone blocks um again have been inserted through the mosaic and you can see here where um they've literally just um crashed through it um and placed those blocks um here. Um we've also got evidence um that um we've got about three different phases of construction at least here. So this wall is sitting on top of another wall which is here and that wall in turn is sitting on top of another wall here which they've literally been built one on top of the other. So, a building has been here. It's been demolished. Another wall has been built on top that's been demolished and then um another wall on top of that. So, um this uh mosaic in style um appears to be uh late 1st century, possibly early 2nd century, but um the walls that we're looking at here are probably much later. Um this wall also um uh has earlier phases underneath it. Uh unfortunately we were very restricted in terms of um space to be able to to investigate these any further. Um but from what we could see there was certainly at least one further phase underneath um this wall. But we um continued um extending the trench um to the north. Um and you can see here this is actually the very end of the allotments, the northern edge of the aotment. Um so we've extended here further. You can see um other walls continuing um on the other side. Um we finally removed this uh last bulk and cleaned it up a bit. And you can see here the uh the mosaic is actually continuing underneath this wall. So this wall has been built on top directly on top of the mosaic um and then buted up against this wall here. We've likely got either an entrance or a possible corner um hard to say u without extending it further. Then again, you've got this uh this wall that's been either inserted or added heading off into the neighboring gardens. On the other side, you can see a continuation of the mosaic here. Um and you can just about see some black tes which are continuing um that black band uh which is coming across here. Um just about here we've got some more um tesserai um which suggests that there may have been um either an entrance or a doorway coming through here. Now um this area here was very difficult to uh interpret. Um so this wall doesn't uh align with with this one. And in fact, uh, this, uh, may not, um, also be, um, part of this wall here either. We've also got a little, um, what looks like some sort of, uh, plinth here, um, which is completely, um, out of alignment with any of the other the other walls. when we did a little bit more work here um we were able to see again another earlier phase of wall um underneath. So um it's very difficult to get a real sense of of what's going on because we've got so many different possibilities, but you can see we've got three or four um phases of activity. Uh, one final uh thing to note, we um had to record this mosaic and the way that um uh we chose to do it in the end was to record it one for one um on large sheet sheets of perma trace and tracing paper and literally um trace out every um every square. Um so that was quite an undertaking and um and did slow us down um somewhat because obviously uh we had given um asurances that we would be returning the plot to the plot holders um at a specific time ready for them to replant. And um that uh it it we ended up having to um get some more um uh time uh allocated to us to be able to finish off the last um the last uh drawing and um uh excavation work that we had. So this is the whole the whole plot if you like. Um you can see um that there were a couple of areas that we were not able um uh to excavate. So this area here and this area here simply because um we had uh large uh uh spoil heaps which needed to be uh either moved or um back back fill other holes. So um these areas remain for for future investigation but effectively you can see see the wall coming down through here. This is um potentially a completely separate building to this one. But um but clearly if there was a a threshold here then um you would have been able to presumably gain um gain access through to um perhaps uh um this if this was a uh a blocked up doorway. Um so maybe this um floor was left in purely to facilitate that um that access. Hard to say. So um our next area of investigation once we had backfilled the mosaic floor um was um to have a look at what was underneath the car park. We were very lucky to be able to secure the services of uh David Staveley who brought his expertise and his equipment and um so we were able to do um a large section of the car park. Unfortunately there was one vehicle which was parked there which um we were never able to shift. So unfortunately uh we ended up with this but it gave us quite a tantalizing glimpse and definitely showed that um there is archaeology uh surviving underneath the tarmac. Um these uh lines here here and here uh represent um modern service trenches. Um, so that leaves um some uh lines coming across here and here. We've got something else coming across here. Um, I think there's another one about there. And there's a hint of a corner here and another one here and possibly here. We were also um at at about the same time that we were finishing the um uh plot uh plot five trench um we identified an area along uh alongside the fence here. um which had been uh neglected by the a lotment um plot holders and had been used for uh um for um uh rubbish and um uh just a load of stones that had been um pulled out of the soil in other places and and piled up here. So, uh, we saw an opportunity to, um, offer to clear this area and return it to the plot holders as usable space, providing that we could, um, excavated in the meantime. So, that's what we um set about doing um, small uh, small trenches um, one by one. And so we worked our way um along here until we got um some idea of um uh what uh was going on in this area. It has to be said this is um a much um disturbed area. So we came across quite a few uh modern um interventions of um service pipes and um uh posts and um all sorts of things. But in the largest uh trench and um this is um looking south towards the uh towards the car park. Um you can see quite a complicated um area. So just to um deconstruct this um in here you've got a large um intervention which is um basically modern um not sure exactly when it was done. It appears to have been dug by hand. And whoever did this not only dug through um solid uh ragstone and mortar wall, but they also dug through the underlying um bedrock and also um an opus sign and floor. So, um they must have been pretty determined to dig this hole for some reason, although um there's no obvious reason that we can see, but So, what you've actually got is two walls, one here and one here. They do um line up with the um with the ground penetrating radar results. Um to the back here you've got um what appears to be um a channel um built out of uh uh roof tile and interspersed with layers of um opus signum. So you've got that still surviving here. Um, and it's also, although it must have been um pink in color, it's also been painted over the top um with a red uh red paint. Um, so this is coming down and then back up the other side. You've got a little um side uh shoot um across here. Now whether this finished here or whether that's just um ball that's remaining is is hard to say but either side you've got um a um what appears to be um a wall. Curiously it it doesn't seem to have any mortar. So it may not have been um very tall. possibly um this could be the the foundation of perhaps um a seating area or something of that nature. Um here you've got um an opus signum floor um which would have continued right the way across but um this area here has been lost. Um, but you can just about see that it has it is adhering to some of these stones. Um, so you've got this um this wall here and then you've just about got a corresponding wall on the other side which has then subsequently been cut by this um modern intervention. Um and then here you can see there's another um cut which seems to be uh part of um a ditch which is running through here. Now this um this ditch which may possibly terminate here. It was very difficult to say without completely completely destroying all of the archaeology, but it appears that it may be terminating here. but obviously predates um the floor. When we found this, there was a large um heap of uh stones here which um we scratched our heads for many weeks trying to determine whether it was um a purposeful um can or whether it was just um uh uh backfilled rubbish. Um I think in the end the fact that it was almost um square in shape and had some form to it uh would suggest that um somebody had um purposefully uh arranged it. And so it may have had some sort of ritualistic um purpose um from the um coins that were recovered from this area. Um this um uh feature appears to be um 4th century. Um all the coins were fourth century. Um so what we appear to have um is perhaps um a shallow um pool feature. Um you can see it has got some um shape to the edge. So, it's got a a little um cornness here on the edge. Um, and it would have been quite smart originally, but obviously is severely um degraded. So to look at this whole area, you can see in the car park um these are the walls that were indicated by the ground penetrating radar coming across. These are the two walls um in our pool. Um and we managed to get um another trench um inserted um through here um just avoiding the uh um the scheduled area. Um but you can see we had some other features. um this wall here which had been completely robbed out. But in this case um they' thrown the stones back in but taken the mortar for some reason. Um and you've got a sort of square um plinth base. This uh this wall didn't show up in the ground penetrating radar or at least not um not strongly as you might think. Um, but it was a very clear structure. Um, on either side of it, you've got um a uh metal surface. So, some sort of um path um or um um or floor area um on either side. This over here um was disturbed ground and there was um remnants of a um a modern um ceramic water pipe um which we found in here. So that's presumably um what happened here. But again the um the metalling continued on the other side but much disturbed this this this area this this end on the other side we had more metalling over here. So another surface um and then um what appears to be a robbed out wall. This had some very early um finds in it and particularly of note was some uh some fine glass glass vessel um which appears um to be probably um first century or early 2nd century. And then we had another wall here which actually ran underneath the um portable uh L um and that across here as well. So um that unfortunately was undated. Uh much of it had been uh robbed away and there were some um again some modern interventions through that. But you can see we have the possibility of um this um pool feature running um on both sides of the a lotment fence. Um possibly for um something like 20 m um if both sides are um uh match each other. Over here we've got the um we managed to get some trenches in alongside the fence in a very confined area, but we did come across what appeared to be um the foundations of those uh long walls running across the entrance building. Um part of the um metal causeway um surface. Um and we also found um one of those um modern surfaces running across here with some big plastic pipes in. But unfortunately the crucial area where this wall um intersects with this wall um unfortunately was in an area that we uh we didn't have access to. As part of the um investigations of this um pool um we came across this um very interesting uh find. You can see that um it's formed out of um fabric very similar to um a roof tile if not the same fabric exactly. Um it's been very crudely fashioned. Um this is the um where it turns. um uh for the base. And this is actually the um the rim. And it appears to be um a large um uh bowl. Um you can see here um an eye has been um fashioned. This has been um pushed into the clay. Um and there are actually some tool marks. Um, you can see there's some fragments of paint um around the eye and up at the top. You can also see um there's some uh possible script down here um which we've not been able to identify. Um obviously um this which may be the handle or one of the handles um has been uh uh fashioned into um a crude nose and you can see the nostrils here and then um a clear mouth um has been pushed in into the clay here. Um, so is this um some sort of uh water divinity? Um, hard to say, but it um it's it's obviously possible that um you've got a large um bowl which was used as part of the um uh the um activities in the pool. So, um to leap to the other other end of the uh the site, um we were very fortunate um that um one of the uh other plots came up for um uh came up um vacant and the parish council very kindly offered us um this plot in the corner. which we have been using as our um base but also um um actually um excavating. So you can just to remind you we've got this um uh square entrance building and the um enclosure wall running right the way through it and it enters roughly um uh on the corner of the plot um about here. And so we were able to um excavate um right the way across here and um determine uh what this corner area looked like. So um you can see here we've got um the wall running across here the corner um and then disappearing off into the uh neighboring garden. Um um here we've got um two walls um one um butting the uh uh enclosure wall there and another one corresponding over here and in between uh a concrete floor or open sig nylon floor if you wish. um running between the the two. Um you'll notice that this wall um is noticeably um wider than this one. Um and it's possible that um that what we've got here um is a is a much um more um substantial wall which is taking a full full height um wall and uh roof. And on this side we perhaps have a series of um columns and a and a a small dwarf wall um uh running along here. Um further over we've got um another small section of wall here uh which again is not um not connected to the um to the boundary wall. Um, and in front of it, what appears to be um the base of a pedestal with the remains of a possible um column much degraded and um eroded in front of this. Um although um we were very constrained um by space and um because here we've actually got a a greenhouse which we use. Um so um and over here obviously we're on to the next plot but we were able to find that um in front of this um was a large pit um and the pit contained um burnt clay. Um and then curiously um just here we appear to have um an infilled section. So this bit um looks quite um distinct from the walls either side. And when we dug down um over here um we were able to see that it is indeed um a completely separate um uh section of wall that's been inserted. This may be because um there was possible uh doorway or entrance um or some other um intervention in this area which was then subsequently um altered. Um the other thing which we've discovered in this area um was um a road surface which um um is uh composed of um stones of u various different sizes. Um predominantly um large uh larger stones and then with a layer of smaller ones. um uh in a matrix of soil packed on top. Um it's very um very hard to um uh analyze this in any way because the um there's multiple holes in this surface which appear to have been um uh filled in. So potholes and um back filling that and then um possibly a complete um second surface that was put on later. Um this is a very large um feature and appears um from what we can see to be about um 15 12 m wide and running roughly northeast southwest. At the area where we've got the blocked entrance, um we've got a little sort of offshoot which um uh aligns with that um with that section. This is um an indication of might look like given the um information that we have so far. So we might have um an area where people were um seated perhaps watching some sort of um ceremony taking place in this area. You can see here um you've got the road um with a possible um um sort of uh side shoot um through some um possible doorways. Now um a doorway in this position um could be one of three things. It could be an alternative entrance to the whole site um for people who were just coming for ceremonies in this area. Um, it could also be um an entrance um to allow uh livestock in through this um area possibly for um participation in the ceremonies. Um or alternatively it could be an exit um such that you came in through um the main uh entrance to the square building. You progressed along the causeway going to ceremonies in other parts of the the site and then eventually ended up in this northeast corner and perhaps exited through this uh through this gateway. could also uh of course be all three of those. This is just a postulation on what we've got at the moment. Oh, incidentally, I realized um after I'd um put this together that um this does look remarkably like Nelson's column. That is purely um accidental. So, um, our road. So, here you can see, um, this is only part of it. It's about half of it, in fact, I think, um, running across here. It's got a very nice, um, cambered section here, and then there's a gap of about a meter before the wall um, to to the western side of it. So, this runs all the way across there. There's various um patches and infills. So, here we've got some tiles. U um there's smaller stones here, the larger ones. So, it's obviously um been uh patched and filled over much of its lifetime. Um I put these um illustrations in just to give you an idea of what it might have looked like. Um this is in fact a continental in fact both of these are continental examples and you can see here the sort of size of roadway um that we might be dealing with. Um this is a site in Belgium uh Bleke which we've been using as a comparison um in our earlier um work and um at the moment we are deviating to some extent from from this site but it was very informative in the in our early um excavations because um the orientation the um the presence of this square building sitting a stride this um this um boundary wall um were very reminiscent of our site. Um but you can see on this um illustration that you've got this large um roadway running um alongside the wall and then heading off um across here. Incidentally, um this building here that they've um uh postulated um looks very similar to the um the one that we might have over here. So um it it has to be said that um the site in Bleke um they didn't have any upstanding walls. All they had was um a whisper of a foundation. So um this is very conjectural. Now, um I think I mentioned at the the start that um one of the reasons for the site being where it is um is um a spring on the top of the hill. So, um this is the Smallley. This is our site um up here. Um, and you can see um the spring um it actually starts in somebody's garden um and runs down behind the um behind the neighboring gardens and eventually it comes all the way down here and out by the church. Now the um in Roman times this um this may not have been um the channel that it it um it took. Um but it is very likely that um that um uh water would have been used for some of the rituals um uh and all water at this time particularly spring water would have been seen as sacred. Um this uh down here is in fact um a small um what appears to be um a small water channel um made of opus signum and roof tile which was found um in a small sundage which um one of the a lotment people um dug about here and so may correspond with um some of this um spring water being diverted into the back of the uh back of the site here at Bleke um in Belgium. Um you can see the same um thing occurred here. So they brought spring water for 500 m um uh into the back of um the facility and then out the other side. This here is the channel um that they uh uncovered. And you can see it's quite a substantial um feat of engineering to do that. And it does raise the question of um why would they do that when they were actually closer to the river and could potentially have brought um the water from the river. And I think the answer to that is that the um the site obviously had um um a reference to the um to the spring which obviously had its own divinities um and they were um keen to bring that water um to the back of um back of the site for use at um East Ming. Um ours if it comes from from this spring here is about 2 70 m. So the final um episode um we were able to get permission from the neighboring gardens um uh for um ground penetrating radar. So uh very kindly uh David Staveley uh brought his machine back again. um in uh in the autumn of uh 2024 and we undertook um a survey of the gardens. So, um we did two sections. Um one in the garden of number four here. And um you can see there were a number of anomalies coming through. There's a a wall um here, another one here. Uh potentially something just there. those you would expect because obviously we were we saw those um features running through when we did the um the mosaic work. Um there's another wall coming through there, another one there. Um but most uh intriguingly of all um over here um we've got a series of walls which potentially um match up with um the earlier um walls uh found in the 50s and 60s and potentially um meet up with what we've got over here. In the center, we've got this intriguing um possibly circular feature um here with something um coming off uh to the south. A very strong set of anomalies um and um we were able to determine that um they do go down several uh um several layers um of the um radar into the ground. So probably um uh something like 500 um millimeters uh of archaeology still exists um under the garden. Just to give you a thought as to what this um might be. Um um this is another one of the slices going through. And as you can see, some of this looks um more as though we've got a series of straight lines rather than a circle. And it's possible it could be um octagonal. Uh this of course is purely conjectural. Um there are a number of um these um structures usually thought to be um bathous, octagonal bathous. The nearest one in size to the one at East Mauling is this one at Loose um in Maidstone. Um but we've got another one in Kent um in North Kent at Bax Farm. Um and a couple more in the uh uh in the west of uh west of the country. Um and they consist of um octagonal buildings with um some hypercourse facility um to heat heat that water. They tend to be late um 4th century. Um and one suggestion um is that um they could be associated with um early Christian um baptisms and um obviously we have a water feature in the um um pool um and certainly a lot of um uh water coming through um from the sacred um spring. Um, the only Christian item that we have uh in support of that um is this very nice uh graffitito on the base of this pot. And as you can see, it's in the shape of a uh early Christian cross. So, it's not a a great leap of uh imagination to think that um perhaps um um a pagan water sanctuary might have um become an early Christian um facility. And given that we've got um an early um church uh adjacent um that's uh a possibility. So, um what we've been able to um identify is a very large um uh enclosure site which to the south is undoubtedly um disappearing underneath the railway line. We've certainly followed it as far as the fence um to the railway line. Um if it continues um the same distance um on either side of the uh entrance building then it probably comes around here somewhere and then back around um the other side. Um you can see that we've got this um uh pool feature which um we have planned to uh explore further over this coming winter. We have permission from the uh the plot holder to um dig up their um various uh plants and um explore the rest of that plot. Um so that um should give us the full extent of that um pool building. However, the main um one of the main things that would be good would be to see whether some of the other walls um are associated with that building or whether they're part of something else and potentially something earlier. I think what we're probably seeing is that the pool is um 4th century late. Um but we've got activity right from uh probably the Iron Age u but certainly um first century um um going right the way through um to the 4th century. Um but you can see we've been able to to plot out quite a substantial um amount um of the site um despite the fact that um a big area is scheduled and um another large chunk of it is underneath um an aotment. So thank you for listening. if you would like to come and join us. Um we do have uh plenty of work that needs doing. Um so don't be shy. Um we take everybody. Um and um thank you. Sorry about that. I just had to be unmuted. Um, Stephen, thank you so much. Uh, what an incredible site and it's amazing how well that site has survived. Um, I think the the brilliant way it's being explored. It's fascinating in itself. It's a kind of story in itself. You've seen it piece by piece like a a jigsaw coming together. It kind of reminds me of that game on catchphrase where they uh take a square away every time and reveal a little bit more. But maybe that's me showing my age a bit. Anyway, um if you do have any questions, please add them to the chat and we will ask. Um I I did think they must you must have had some remarkable patience whilst recording that mosaic. I mean, it must have taken Well, uh yeah, I mean it's it's the first time that we've um we've encountered a mosaic. Um, and to find one that's so big, um, you know, was definitely challenging. I suppose uh at least it wasn't multicolored and more complicated but um but it's it's you know the process of recording it is is quite illustrative in itself because you get to see uh the tessr you know sort of you right in front of your nose and so you can um you can pick up all of the nuances in the way that it's been um uh worn away and damaged and repaired and all of those sorts of things which do become apparent when you're when you're doing it at that detail. So, um yes, it was definitely a challenge and um you know, there was about um good half a dozen people working on it on some days. Wow. Wow. Yeah, maybe a good good ch didn't have all the uh the colorful bits. Um yeah, the uh the your little monument as well that did look like Nelson's. I thought it was more like monument than Nelson's column, but it's still very nice illustration, but I reckon there is definitely going to be a triumphal arch underneath that car in the car park where you uh where you come. Um I have a question from an Eisenberg. It says, "Stephen, thank you." Oh, it might not be a question actually. Sorry, I haven't read it all the way through. Um the broader landscape context is interesting in relation to other Roman sites in the area. Do you have any view on the role that your site might have played in the Roman landscape, particularly in relation to Eckles? Well, that's a good question. Um um certainly we've got some parallels with Eckles and it would have been contemporary at the time. Um I think um and it's it's the nearest site um uh to East Ming. I mean, as you know, as the crow flies, um it would have been nice to have been able to say that the road surface that we've um sort of uncovered um uh sort of heads towards one of these sites, but it it doesn't unfortunately. It very neatly goes between them. Um but um certainly um we we're doing uh a lot of work on the roof tile at the moment and Eckles um has a um a roof tile um kiln. Um and so you know some of it would have been produced there. Um so that that may be um where some of the um materials come from. Um I think it's difficult because um clearly we've got um a religious site. Um I think that um um it's very central between those um two or three other um sites but I think those are something different and uh I think until we re are really able to understand what those sites are for instance um uh East Farley um you know I'm I'm convinced you know we we've got another sacred site there but it's a different. It's got a different character to it. Um so I think this um the East Mulling site is certainly you know a lot of resources have been expended on this place. you know, the um the marble um and um you know, the mosaic floor, the way that you know, the sheer size of it, the scale. Um you don't very often see something of this magnitude in the UK or at least it hasn't been identified um as this sort of site. is much more um would be much more common um on the continent and um the site at Bleke is a is a good example of of you know a comparable site. Um but yes it's not it's not easy to work it out. I mean there is a um the nearest um settlement that we know of um is at um Brad Bourne Fields which is um uh just sort of um um this side of the river um and uh that may be um linked to to this sort site. I mean that the road would would more or less head in that direction. Um so that that may be um where some of the people certainly came from. I mean certainly um uh where we found the uh ironwork slag in the in the pit in the um in the square building. Um that material must have been brought from somewhere else. And the Bradborn field site does have evidence of metal working. But then again, so do probably many other sites, but um I would have thought that probably people from all around the area would have come to this. It would have been a real sort of hub. Um you know, it would have been a cathedral amongst uh amongst temples. Great. Thank you, Stephen. Um I've got a question from David Hullman. It says, "Steve, I don't know how many coins you've had, but I get the impression from reading the blog that there aren't very many and that most of them are scruffy radiant copies and mid-4th century copies. Far fewer coins than one might expect from a religious site." So, that's potentially the question. Also, you seem to be very down on Valentinian coins. Sorry, apologies for my terrible reading here. uh 364 to 378 which are often seen as being well represented at temple sites. Could it be a rural sanctuary similar to those you get across school in which case you may have a theater still waiting to be found? Well, we that has been at the back of my mind for a long time. Um it would be ideally placed here because um because it goes um uphill immediately behind the site. Um that would be perfect for building a um a theater into the hillside. And clearly we've got a lot of um um uh road surfacing meddling um which may well um you know lead us to to some such a site. I mean looking at the um go back uh to here. So this is the bleak case site and you can see um their theater is here. Um and um there is a bit of separation from the from the two and um other sites like um March and Filford which has got the same sort of um uh amphitheater and um Gospex also the the theater may be um divorced some some way from the actual um from the um sanctuary site. So um unfortunately that might mean it's underneath the railway. Um um but yes um there is a definite possibility that we might have that um I don't I think the thing about the coins um and you would know more about this than I do um but the coins are giving us um an indication of the date of the um pool but the in the area where we're having lots of um ritualized activity um in front of the um or adjacent to the entrance get way which is all first century we're finding virtually no coins at all. So I think um you know it's it's an indication of the way that the site is being used and perhaps the um um the affluence or availability of of coins at various periods during during the um uh during the Roman period. But I'm I I've always felt that um this is entirely these are all entirely um Brits that are using this site. Even though it's a very grand site, I'm I'm sure that the lack of um epigraphic evidence um is probably um telling us that um these are all local local people. And what's happening here is that um the uh the money raised from this um Verden area through um crops and um uh uh grain um is what's is what's funding this and um clearly you know you've got to keep the gods on your side and um obviously the the sacred water is very important for uh irrigation and etc etc. So I think um all those things are connected. Um and um you know I think this is uh very much a sort of um British endeavor. Um I don't think there's um there's any sort of official Roman um input into it as far as I can see so far. Thank you. Uh I was well impressed by the um the effort it must have taken to get water from the stream from the spring there. Um saying because in in the map that you showed there the river wasn't as far away from the site so there surely must have been an easy well maybe it was a leade site there must have been an easier way to get water to the site. So the spring must have been very significant. It's really interesting to see. I mean um this canalization of the water um you see in lots of sites. It's it's very often overlooked. Um, so we saw it at Snodland. Um, we've seen it um at other sites like um Nettleton um and places like that at um uh Lach Le Dickme um and what they they seem to have gone out of their way to um to canalize um either a um a river or some other type of water course. And it's almost as if the um the sort of water in a in a I mean it might be a practical um issue but um but the water in the river is almost too sacred um to be taken directly and so you have to canalize it um and so you sort of control it and just take small amount a little bit like um holy water. So you think of um you know holy water in a church or whatever. I mean, obviously you can have, you know, you can have buckets full of stuff, but actually you end up with these little vials of, you know, because it's so precious and so holy. So, I think that it may be um connected with that. Um, [Music] so this is good. Uh, Jason has said, "We live in East Morning above the spring. Would you be interested in investigating our garden?" Ah, absolutely. There you go. win. So, um I don't know how we would facilitate that. Jason, my email is in the chat there. If you want to email me, I can pass your details on to uh Stephen and you guys can can uh start digging gardens unless you you know, maybe patio in there. So, it's interesting because um there it's possible there may have been a shrine um associated with directly by the spring. um that doesn't always doesn't always happen, but certainly you would expect to find some sort of votive offerings um close to the spring itself, I would have thought. So, um it would be interesting if anybody's um is that close to the either the spring or the um the channel um to be able to, you know, if they found anything in their garden um you know, little Venus figurines or or something of that nature. Um that's the sort of thing that you might expect to find. Having said that, we found none of that um at the site so far. Um which we did find at East Farley. So I don't know that you can you can draw those um sort of strict par uh strict lines. I think it just um just tends to vary. But yes, I mean obviously um uh any sort of um look at some of this would be fantastic. We haven't um we haven't tried to um look at the spring, but it might be the channel that's there now um is the original Roman channel. Amazing. I Jason has left his email so I will forward that on to you Stephen and then you guys can can chat further. So, um, yeah, I was going to just quickly ask, sorry, I know we're pushing time a bit, but I was going to quickly ask, um, I noticed, and this is definitely because of the situation, um, timing with the a lotments, I'm sure, and space for for Phil and stuff, but, um, a lot of the Roman um, remains that have been left in situ and and reeri. Do you think that's um problem sort of it means you're not able to explore what might be underneath? Is that kind of I guess? Oh, I do it mean um well I I know it's not going to be destroyed and therefore you know it's still there. So technically the site's not in danger but do you feel it's sort of limiting the chance to explore the story? Um I think that the problem is going to be always that we only have very small uh windows into the site in most areas. So the square building has been fantastic because there is no restriction on us. Um, so we've been able to get a lot more information than that and um and dig down and get sections through um through the foundations and the wall, see the um the butts um and that all that sort of stuff. Um which we've only been able to do in places where we've got sort of um enough room to be able to do that. Um where the mosaic was was very tight. Um um we did manage to get um some um sections um which do indicate those um FA phasings, but actually seeing how far they go um which ones link up with others um etc etc you quickly run out of one plot and into the next plot. And some of the plot owners definitely don't want us to dig on their plot. So we will have to wait for the natural churn of um plot um owners um which does seem which does obviously happen. Um but certainly the um everything at the west end of the um the site up here um uh I think is going to be very illustrative because this um long buildings that we've got here um I think there's going to be lots of um uh phases of activity. Um what we've been able to do is get um scheduled monument consent to dig in a couple of the plots where the plot holders um are amanable to for us to do things over the winter. But inside the scheduled area again we're very we're constrained then by historic England saying we can only have trenches that are you know whatever size they um they're prepared to allow us to have. So, it's early days yet, but um uh over this coming winter um we should learn a lot more about that pool area. And I think the intriguing thing is have we got is there another feature um underneath? Um so, is there for instance one of these sitting underneath the pool? you know, that was probably, you know, late first or, you know, second century and then they've knocked it down and and put the pool over the top and then, you know, so you've got a a change in the um in the belief pattern um um sort of going forward. Um those are the sorts of things that we would be looking to answer. Um but it's going to be a very slow process because of the con, you know, the uh constricted um um plots um that we're working on. Sure. Um I mean, yeah, and there you go everybody. If you want to get involved and and help Stephen with that, I'm sure he will be very grateful for your help in the future on the site. Stephen, thank you so much. That was an incredible talk, a really fascinating site and I'm so glad that it is going to continue to reveal its um stories to us in the future and congratulations again on your PhD. So, thank you all very much for attending and thank you Stephen for that amazing talk. We have lots more coming up. So, please do keep an eye out for our upcoming talks. On the 18th of September, we'll have the amazing Professor Dan Hicks discussing Pit Rivers in Kent, Musketry and Excavations, introducing the major reassessment of Pit Rivers work and life and the importance of Kent to the work and thinking during his time as instructor of musketry at Hyde and as inspector of ancient monuments. On October the 30th, we will have none other than our very own Jacob Scott talking to us about medieval and historic graffiti at Rochester Cathedral, revealing 900 years of history as told through the inscriptions, scratches, and marks on the walls and the peers of Rochester Cathedral and the ruins of the Cathedral Priary of St. Andrew. And he will be in fancy dress. Uh, on Thursday the 20th of November, experimental archaeologist Alexander Reed will take a look at an early Anglo-Saxon sword from the cemetery at SAR and use experimental archaeology to explain how it was made and show the technologies available to the Saxon blacksmiths. In December, we'll delve into Kent's medieval measurements with a talk from the amazing Dr. Christopher Monk. Uh, and in January, Jason Hul will be talking to us about medieval knife crime or possibly martial arts. Um, and I'm fairly sure we also have talks pencled in all the way through February and March. So, we have fantastic histories continuing and they are all for free and we would love to see you all there. As I mentioned earlier, if you're not a member, please do think about joining us. Just about £3 pound30 a month and you'll get a copy of Archaeology Caniana, our bannual magazine, regular newsletters, exclusive access to our online collections, all of our collections, our conferences, selected events, opportunities to get involved in excavations and research projects, and everything Kent heritage. Check the website for more details on these and a wide range of other upcoming Kent-based events, as well as how to become a member um if you're interested. Thank you, Stephen, again, and thank you all for joining us. It's been really wonderful and we will see you all next time. Good night folks.