By Sian Napier
snapier@thekmgroup.co.uk

Archaeologists have made exciting discoveries at a site just outside Faversham where a late Roman burial ground has been found.

The 4th century sarcophagus is built from chalk blocks and Kentish ragstone with a terracotta lid covering the grave slot.

Its alignment shows it is a Christian burial.

The discovery has been made in pasture land at Syndale Park, an area which has attracted attention from as early as the 18th century.

Now, a team of archaeologists under the direction of Dr Paul Wilkinson, who runs the Faversham-based Kent Archaeological Field School, has been excavating in the field, just off the main road by Syndale Park.

Several different floors have been found, made from flint cobbles and compacted chalk, as well as 1st, 2nd and 3rd century ditches.

In Roman times this site, which was just outside the Roman town of Durolevum, contained a cemetery with cremation burials, as well as shops and industry.

Dr Wilkinson said: “Field survey and geophysical investigation, supported by limited excavation by the field school, has shed new light on the nature and extent of monuments within the park, which in turn has led to a wider investigation of the land north and south of the Roman Watling Street which runs east/west through the park.”

Dr Wilkinson added that some of the early ditches on the site could possibly date from the Roman invasion of England in AD43 but much work was still needed before archaeologists could be certain about this.

Many of the coin finds date from the 4th century but a large Roman ditch has been dated by coins and pottery to the early 1st century AD.

“We have also found a Roman kiln or oven, Roman cremation burials and Roman Watling Street as the study site lies within a rich archaeological landscape,” Dr Wilkinson added.

“To the west are the standing remains of Stone Chapel, a scheduled monument, subject to a recent investigation by the field school which concluded it was built as a Romano-Celtic temple and then probably rebuilt as a Christian church.”

Excavations in the 1920s at Syndale Park found the remains of Roman houses along the A2 (Watling Street) and the remains of two skeletons.

When the latest dig at the site finishes it will be carefully filled in to preserve the remains after being photographed and drawn.

Dr Wilkinson said about 80 small items had been found at the site so far, including coins, pottery, pins and copper brooches, as well as lots of nails.

While we were covering the dig a coin featuring Constantine the Great was found, as well as a brooch.

The coin, minted in Trier, carried the legend Glory to the Army.