Monument record MKE131718 - Three Neolithic pit graves discovered near Monkton in Thanet

During excavations associated with the widening of the A253 near Monkton in Thanet three graves were identified with a likley Neolithic date. Only one can be dated with any confidence by the large assemblage of early neolithic pottery recovered from its fill. Grave 2079 was the best preserved of the three graves, here the crouched skeleton lay on the southern side of a pit much larger than that required for burial. It may be that the pit had a primary function unassociated with burial, and had subsequently been reused. Alternatively the pit was cut as a grave and its large size facilitated activities below ground associated with the burial rite or accommodating grave goods that have not survived. Or perhaps the burial was a closing deposit marking the end of life of the pit. Burials like that at Monkton Mount Pleasant are not very common in Kent, these examples are therefore important and provide a contrast to the better known tradition of communal burial in barrows like those flanking the river stour and the megalithic long barrows around the Medway. One should be mindful that in the heavily ploughed landscape of east Kent, the absence if evidence for covering mound over these pit graves does not necessarily mean that one did not exist originally.

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1996, Canterbury's Archaeology 1994 - 1995 (Serial). SKE11882.

<2> CAT, 2008, At the Great Crossroads: Prehistoric, Roman and Medieval Discoveries on the Isle of Thanet 1994-1995 (Monograph). SKE59036.