Monument record TR 26 NE 1408 - Two ring ditches (7 and 8) , Monkton

Two conjoined Bronze Age ring ditches seen as cropmarks on aerial photographs mapped as part of the Historic England Thanet Landscape Mapping Project 2024. The larger western ring ditch has a diameter of c.13m. The eastern ring ditch a diameter of 8.5m with traces of an offset inner ring ditch 7m in diameter skewed to the NW. (1)

Traces of round barrows and cremations associated with this group were also found during work on the A253 near Monkton. The earliest ring-ditch was represented by ditch 2039. Only about 60 per cent of the circuit of this ditch survived since the rest had been cut away by later ring-ditches and quarries. The ditch, near circular in plan, probably had an external diameter of about 7.3m. The cut, 0.3–0.4m deep had a steep-sided, truncated v-shaped profile with a width at the surface of 0.75m and between 0.20 and 0.40m at the base. The fill consisted of a single, sterile deposit of compact brown loamy clay with abundant inclusions of chalk fragments of varying size and flint, both rounded and angular. Some of this chalky material had coalesced into a calcareous mass along the edges and base of the cut, probably caused by percolating water. There were no interior features. The secondary ring-ditch was represented by ditch 2173, which clearly cut the fills of Ring-ditch VIIIa. The disposition of this new ditch suggests that it represented an enlargement and refurbishment of the original monument, but in effect it was an entirely new construction. The ditch only survived in two short lengths at the north and south sides of the monument; elsewhere it was completely cut away by subsequent quarries and the ditch of the adjacent Ring-ditch VII. The presence of these intrusions has made a determination of its exact dimensions and shape in plan difficult. The feature did not delineate an exact circle however, rather a horseshoe shape about 9.4m across, with a rounded terminal end at the south side. A possible adjacent terminal to the west may have been removed, but is also suggested, by a later quarry. Cut 2173 had a truncated v-shaped profile, 0.3–0.5m deep and its width at the surviving ground surface was c 1m and at the base, 0.2–0.4m. The fill of the feature (2172) appeared to be different in each of the disconnected segments. To the south it consisted of a mixed deposit of light grey and brown loams and silty clays with chalk flecks and occasional flint. To the north a bipartite structure, consisting of a lower level of chalky material with an upper deposit of brown clay loam was evident. This difference in fill may be related to subsequent activity, primarily the partial recut since the fills of this later feature appeared to be contiguous, at least in part, with the fill of 2173. Ring-ditch VIIIb was not concentric with Ring-ditch VIIIa, but appeared to be offset slightly to the south-east. This may indicate that the earlier ditch was not visible when the second phase ditch was constructed, although the burial mound remained. Perhaps more likely however, considering the north segment’s coaxial position with the earlier cut is the possibility that it survived as a depression and even that some, if not all, of the earlier ditch was deliberately infilled during the construction of the second, which may have been based on the extant remains of the original.

Ring-ditch VII was situated immediately to the west of and abutting Ring-ditch VIIIb. This consisted of a considerably larger ditch cut in two separate segments, a western and an eastern. Together, the two parts described a penannular layout with gaps forming diametrically opposed causeways to the interior at the northern and southern extremities. Overall, the outer diameter of these two cuts was c 14.6m. The ditches were varied in size and profile (partially due to secondary quarrying) but generally possessed either a flat-based or u-shaped form, 2.1– 2.5m wide at the top and between 0.3 and 0.4m at the base. The cut also fluctuated in depth, from 1.0 to 1.5m, with the upper edges of noticeably lesser gradient, mainly due to differential rates of erosion between the upper, softer, periglacially ruptured chalk and the lower, undisturbed bedrock. The northern causeway was c 2m wide, the southern 0.9m. The southern causeway was spanned by a shallow cut, linking the two ditch terminals. This cut, which had a u-shaped profile, was c 1m wide and only 0.2m deep. Cuts of this nature across the causeways of ring-ditches have been found elsewhere, such as Lord of the Manor (Nigel Macpherson-Grant, pers comm). Various interpretations of their function can be suggested. In this case, possibilities include an abandoned attempt to completely remove the southern entrance, a small trench cut to prevent access to the mound from the south or perhaps just a slight hollow worn into the chalk by the users of the burial mound, though the latter seems unlikely looking at the profile of the cut. Whatever its purpose, the feature is likely to be considerably later than the initial construction of the ring-ditch, due to the nature of its infilling, which was contiguous and identical to the latest fills of the ditches themselves. A stratigraphic relation between the ditches of Ringditches VIIIb and VII (or indeed between VIIIa and VII) was impossible to establish in the field, although the vertical profile of their various infills was examined in numerous sections at this point of contact. This is partially due to later truncation. The secondary nature of Ring-ditch VII cannot therefore be proven stratigraphically, but it is implied by the lateral ditch profiles at this point of intersection. These clearly indicate that the base and eastern edge of the ditch of Ringditch VIIIa was extant here. In addition, the soil profiles suggests that the infill of the earliest ring-ditch had been re-excavated, probably deliberately, upon the excavation of ditch 2106 of Ring-ditch VII, at least along those parts of their circuits that can be projected to intersect. This was probably carried out because the earlier fill was still relatively uncompacted and loose. This must mean that Ring-ditch VII is secondary, since if its circuit was cut first, there would be no need to cut a second, shallower ditch along its edge, and therefore this ledge would not have existed. Also, it appeared that the fills of ditches (Ringditch VIIIb) in the north and (Ring-ditch VII) were contiguous and interdigitated. This factor strongly suggests that Ring-ditch VII was excavated when the VIIIb ditch remained mostly unfilled and perhaps not long after the construction of Ring-ditch VIIIb, or at least while it was still in use. The infilling of both the Ring-ditch VII circuits was similar. The initial infills of the ditch were primary erosion products from the ditch sides, layers of chalk rubble, with occasional voids and bands of compact yellow-brown, brown and light brown silts. These levels, c 0.4m thick on average were completely sterile, and their profile indicated that they derived from the inner and outer edges of the ditch in about equal measure.

The remains of three badly damaged satellite cremations were found between the ring-ditches of the Ring-ditch VII/ VIII complex and that of Ring-ditch VI. Cremation 2025 was located at a mid way point between the north-eastern quadrant of Ring-ditch VI and the southwestern quadrant of Ring-ditch VII. It consisted of the truncated remains of an inverted cremation vessel within a cut 0.5m in diameter. The cut, only 0.12m deep, had steeply sloping sides and a flat base. The fill consisted of a compact mid brown soil with frequent chalk inclusions and flint pebbles that contained a cremation vessel and fragments of burnt human bone. Less than 10 per cent of the vessel and its contents survived plough damage. Cremation 2027 lay 7.5m to the south-east and was similarly damaged. The pottery vessel had also been placed in an inverted position in a small near circular pit, no more than 0.4m across. The depth of the cut was 0.11m at maximum. Cremation 2045 was situated 7m to the east of 2027 and 5.5m to the south of Ring-ditch VIIIb. The cremation pit was oval in plan and measured 0.4 by 0.55m. The surviving pit had steep sloping sides and a rounded base, 0.16m in depth. The fill of the pit consisted of a moderately compact mid brown soil with chalk fragments and a few sherds of the cremation vessel. No human remains survived and less than 10 per cent of the cremation vessel was extant. All the cremation urns were of Deverel-Rimbury type and of a similar fabric.

<2> Historic England Archive, 1964-2005, Historic England Archive Ordnance Survey vertical aerial photographs, OS/95018 V 302 10-MAR-1995 (Archive). SKE57105.