Archaeologists working on a dig at Grange Farm, near Gillingham in the county of Kent in southeastern England, have discovered 15 kilograms of litharge, a lead ore associated with the extraction of silver from other metals. This is the largest amount ever found at a British Roman site and far exceeds the amount archaeologists would normally expect to find in a rural settlement such as Grange Farm, suggesting silver refining was done on an industrial scale.
However, the excavation team did not unearth any signs of the infrastructure that could have supported the size of the operation required to produce this amount of material.
The excavation and subsequent investigation, led by Pre-Construct Archeology (PCA) and involving archaeologists from the University of Newcastle, revealed a rectangular building that would have been constructed of wood and divided internally by three corridors. This type of multifunctional building was quite common in Roman Britain and was used as both a home and a workplace. However, although the archaeologists found evidence of a small metallurgical activity at one end of the building, it was not a level that would have produced the amount of lithargy discovered.
The team faced another mystery when they also discovered a stone mausoleum, a large funerary monument usually found in Roman villas, not corridor buildings. Dated to the late 3rd or early 4th century AD, it was the height of a two-storey building and would have been visible from the nearby River Medway. Inside, the mausoleum had a tessellated floor of smooth red tiles, a rare occurrence for mausoleums in Roman Britain, archaeologists say.
Within the ruins of the mausoleum, archaeologists found a lead-lined sarcophagus containing the body of an elderly woman. Isotopic analysis of the lady's teeth suggests that she was probably from the area, while radiocarbon dating suggests that she was buried around the same time the mausoleum was built. Although in Roman Britain people were buried in lead sarcophagi, it was not a general practice. The discovery was also unusual because the team found no evidence that the woman had been buried with personal items or grave goods, which was common at the time.
Dr James Gerrard, Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology, said:There are many mysteries surrounding the Grange Farm discoveries. Although we know that the economy of the late Roman Empire was based on silver and gold, the production of which was highly controlled by the state, we do not know why silver was refined in such large quantities at Grange Farm, which was nothing more than a small rural settlement. The site's proximity to the river may have been a factor, or the work may have been carried out illegally, out of sight of the Empire .
Also, we have very few clues as to who the old woman was. It is clear that she was someone important with a significant status in the community, because to be buried in a lead sarcophagus in a substantial monument such as the mausoleum requires resources, both in terms of money and manpower .
By the 5th and 6th centuries, Grange Farm appears to have ceased to be used as a permanently occupied settlement, so the team was surprised when the dig also unearthed a number of early Anglo-Saxon artifacts, including two spear heads and an ornate brooch. . Spears were often used as part of Anglo-Saxon burial practices, but there was no evidence to suggest that Grange Farm was used as a settlement or burial place at the time.
The brooch is a highly unusual find:stylistically it is closer to southern Scandinavia and one of only a few similar brooches found in Britain added Dr. Gerrard. Both the spears and the brooch are rare and high-status items in an otherwise unremarkable rural site . The mausoleum was not in use at the time, and in fact it appears that the old woman's grave was disturbed in later years, possibly by medieval gravediggers or relic hunters .
In addition to the lithargy and the mysteries surrounding the mausoleum and the old woman in the lead-lined sarcophagus, the team of archaeologists also found 453 Roman coins, more than 20,000 pottery shards, and 8,000 animal bones.
The excavation, which took place before the start of new development on the site, is the subject of a new book, By the Medway Marsh , written by Dr. Gerrard and published by PCA. It details the excavation and history of the site, from the late Iron Age, its transition and growth under the Romans, and what happened in medieval times.
The Grange Farm site has provided us with a fascinating mystery and a long and complex sequence of activity spanning the entire Roman period to the early Anglo-Saxon period, and beyond added Dr. Gerrard. But that's just one phase of the history of this place. Everything we have found -and what is happening now with the deposit- is proof of the economic pull of the Medway and the changing development of the area .