Roman Cremation burial, Chislet.
On 29th May 2003 two metal detectorists, Graham Healy and Norman Goodman having obtained the farmer's permission, were detecting on arable land in the parish of Chislet, to the north-east of Canterbury . In one area of about 20 square meters they began to find fragments of copper alloy which, although badly damaged, had clearly once been parts of a metal container or containers of some sort. Further searching then revealed a large decorated handle, clearly from a jug, bearing the design of a face on its lower terminal.
Many more vessel fragments were located in the plough soil, and eventually the lower half of a copper alloy flagon was found in situ , its upper half having been removed by the plough. The finders then excavated this vessel, along with some of its contents and the surrounding soil (an enameled copper alloy disc brooch of 2nd century date was found during subsequent investigation of this material by the FLO). Further examination of the fragments suggested that several metal vessels were represented. The decorated handle was recognised by the finders as being of Roman type, and they therefore contacted Andrew Richardson, FLO for Kent, who visited the site with both finders on 5th June 2003 . A preliminary investigation of the findspot suggested that the jug had been placed upright in a shallow pit.
Figure 1: A plan view photograph of the lower 2/3 rds of a Roman "Dressel 20" amphora in situ.
In an effort to better understand the find, a larger excavation was carried out on 24 th June by the FLO, along with Graham Healy. This entailed the opening of an area about 2 meters square around the spot where the jug had been found. This revealed that the jug and other vessels had formed part of an elaborate cremation burial. The entire burial had been severely truncated by ploughing, but it seems that it centred on a wooden box with iron fittings, which contained a copper alloy dish and much carbonised material. This was probably the container for the cremation itself, although no cremated bone was found in the box, only the lower portion of which survived. Adjacent to this was the lower two-thirds of a Dressel 20 amphora. The lower fill of this did contain some cremated material, including bone, as well as pottery and glass fragments. However, it did not contain enough material to comprise a complete human cremation and it seems likely, based on known parallels for such graves, that the cremation had been deposited in the box, but partially dragged into the amphora by ploughing. The recovered part of the burial thus comprised at least:
- 1 wooden box
- 1 amphora
- 1 copper alloy flagon
- 1 burnished copper alloy bowl
- 1 copper alloy dish
- 1 small copper alloy cup
- other pottery and glass vessels
- at least 1 brooch
Subsequently, the finders and landowner kindly donated the entire find to the Museum of Canterbury. The Museum arranged for conservation, reconstruction and analysis to be carried out by Dana Goodburn-Brown of AMTEC Ltd, based at Chatham Dockyard. This has allowed the partial reconstruction of the flagon, the burnished bowl, and the small bowl (the latter encrusted with what may be limescale, indicating it was used to boil water) and of the amphora. AMTEC's analysis has added a considerably to the amount of information that has been extracted from this burial and it is intended that Dana Goodburn-Brown and Andrew Richardson will collaborate on the full publication of this material in due course. In the meantime the finds have already gone on public display as part of the Museum of Canterbury's Hidden Treasures' exhibition, which ran from December 2003 to March 2004.
Figure 2: The finds on display at the Museum of Canterbury.
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