Ritual practice in rural Kent, A.D.43-410

Lucy Waterson supervised by

It is now almost fully acknowledged that the practice of religious ritual in the Roman world was an integral part of society and of the lives that people led. These rituals could come in a variety of forms e.g. foundation deposits; deposits in shafts and wells; the buildings of temples and shrines. Historically however excavators have often missed (or been reluctant to acknowledge) all but the most obvious evidence of these rituals, but through a comprehensive reinterpretation of the evidence across different sites it is possible to identify both additional items which may have been deposited as part of a religious ritual and wider patterns of ritual behaviour.

This research focuses on Kent due to both its proximity to Gaul and early exposure to Roman occupation, providing a potentially rich three-way merging of ritual behaviour (e.g. the traditional British ritual deposits in shafts, Gaulish use of cellars and Roman ritual buildings. This merging (or conflict) of cultures combined with well established ritual focused sites (e.g. the temple complex at Springhead, located on Watling Street and with origins in the late Iron Age) creates a landscape providing a wide range of contexts and sites at which a variety of religious rituals appear to have taken place.

Through applying a holistic approach to both individual sites and parallels/contrasts between sites, this research therefore seeks to present a more comprehensive understanding of ritual practice in rural Kent.