Monument record TQ 86 NE 1198 - Middle Bronze Age pits, Orchard Farm, Iwade

Middle Bronze Age pits and artefacts were identified during excavations at Orchard Farm, Iwade carried out in 2016. The features comprised six pits measuring 0.18-1.81m in length, 0.18-1.12m in width, and 0.03-0.20m in depth; four of these features formed a 12m by 6m pit cluster.

Several of the pits contained fragments of bucket urns, worked and burnt flint, Middle - Late Bronze Age pottery, and charcoal. Radiocarbon dating was carried out on a sample of charcoal from a pit containing a fragment of bucket urn, which produced a date of 1465–1384 cal BC. An assemblage of residual Bronze Age pottery was recovered from the fill of a later Iron Age ditch, which may have been cut through more Bronze Age pits and the finds redeposited in the fill of the later feature. (1)

<1> Thames Valley Archaeological Services Ltd, 2017, Land at Orchard Farm, Iwade, Kent, Phase 1 and 1A, Archaeological recording action (Unpublished document). SKE53116.