Secrets unearthed at huge ancient burial ground in Kent

Archaeologists are finding out more about prehistoric life in Kent at one of the country’s largest burial grounds

Transcript

00:00Kent is England's oldest county as many know but the home of the Canterbury

00:04Tales, Rochester Cathedral and Leeds Castle might be even older than we think.

00:09What might look like a field just south of Faversham is actually home to one of

00:13the biggest archaeological dig sites in the country and what experts have found

00:16here is sure to rock the archaeological world. Kent is certainly a historic place

00:21but much of it might be where we can't see it. Right now I'm inside one of the

00:26archaeological excavations down here in the Leeds Court Estate just south of

00:30Faversham. Stringman's Farm in the 800 year old Leeds Court Estate had

00:35excavations started on it several years ago but three nearby sites have started

00:39to be dug into as well with a team of volunteers and students from the Kent

00:43Archaeological Society since Easter. We were working at the time on another part

00:48of the estate with Kent Underground Research Group and through them they

00:52suggested we get hold of Kent Archaeological Society to ask for their

00:56expertise and that started a journey with KAS along with the fact that we had

01:02had some metal detecting rallies here that had unearthed five Bronze Age

01:07hoards. Experts believe the site was once a burial site or ceremony ground dating

01:12as far back as 3000 or 1500 BC the Neolithic or Bronze Age period. To put

01:19this in perspective the Neolithic Age was the cusp of human society when

01:23people learned to cultivate plants and domesticate animals for food moving away

01:28from the hunter-gatherer structure. Now in their excavations 50 centuries later

01:32the team discovered chippings of flint that show the remains of the process of

01:36making stone tools as well as fragments of rare decorated pottery that are older

01:40than the Romans coming to Kent and most interestingly they found evidence of

01:45prehistoric human cremations. It was never really believed that Neolithic

01:50people occupied this part of Kent to any great extent and what we've done

01:56through our excavations over the years a combination of professional archaeologists

02:01and volunteer archaeologists we've been able to suggest or even show that there

02:08is a very large prehistoric community in this area. They're not living here

02:14what they're doing is they're they're burying their dead here. The next steps

02:19are key for the society they'll spend months reviewing and archiving the

02:22information making sure that Kent further earns its spot in our country's

02:26history books. Finn McDermid for KMTV