Saltwood Tunnel, Kent - Integrated Site Report

Construction of the CTRL (Section 1) required excavation of two deep, approximately parallel railway cuttings north of Saltwood village, immediately south of the M20 motorway, and directly above the London to Folkestone railway as it passes through the Saltwood tunnel between Sandling and Dolland's Moor (NGR TR 615345 136940 to TR 616157 136925, Fig. 1). Recording of the archaeological remains that would be destroyed by this work was undertaken between 1997 and 2001, as part of a wider programme of archaeological mitigation along the CTRL route.In 1979, salvage recording during construction of the M20 motorway provided the first indication that archaeological remains survived near the Saltwood Tunnel (Willson 1985). Following an environmental assessment of the proposed CTRL route (URL 1994), Oxford Archaeological Unit (now Oxford Archaeology) undertook fieldwalking and evaluation trenching immediately south of these remains (URS 1997) and full excavation was then carried out by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust (CAT) under the RLE site code ARC SLT98. A second phase of evaluation trenching revealed early Anglo-Saxon inhumation burials immediately west of the Stone Farm bridleway, and an area around these was also fully excavated (ARC SLT98C). In 1999 Wessex Archaeology (WA) was commissioned to maintain a rolling 'strip-map-sample' excavation programme on land east of the bridleway (ARC SFB99), whilst CAT concurrently excavated the remaining ground between their previous sites, and beneath the western portion of the Saltwood tunnel bund (ARC SLT99). In the final phase of fieldwork WA recorded remains preserved in three separate areas: under the eastern tunnel-bund, within the footprint of a temporary soil storage area, and beneath the former Stone Farm bridleway (ARC SFB01).

CTRL（海峡隧道铁路连接线，Channel Tunnel Rail Link）第一标段的施工，需在萨尔特伍德村以北、M20高速公路正南侧，且途经桑德林与多兰沼间的萨尔特伍德隧道的伦敦至福克斯通铁路正上方区域，开挖两处近乎平行的深铁路路堑，该区域地理坐标为NGR TR 615345 136940至TR 616157 136925，详见图1。为避免该工程损毁地下考古遗存，项目团队于1997至2001年间开展了考古遗存记录工作，该工作属于CTRL沿线整体考古影响缓解项目的组成部分。

1979年，M20高速公路施工期间开展的抢救性考古记录工作，首次证实萨尔特伍德隧道附近存有考古遗存（Willson, 1985）。在对拟建CTRL线路开展环境评估（URL 1994）后，牛津考古项目部（现更名为牛津考古研究所）在该遗存南侧开展了地表踏勘与探槽试掘工作（URS 1997），随后坎特伯雷考古信托基金会（Canterbury Archaeological Trust，简称CAT）以RLE项目代码ARC SLT98开展了全面发掘。

第二阶段探槽试掘工作在斯通农场马道西侧发现了早期盎格鲁-撒克逊时期土葬墓葬，该区域亦开展了全面发掘（ARC SLT98C）。1999年，威塞克斯考古研究所（Wessex Archaeology，简称WA）受委托在马道东侧区域开展连续性"条带-测绘-取样"发掘项目（ARC SFB99）；与此同时，CAT则对此前发掘区域间的剩余地块及萨尔特伍德隧道填土堤西段下方区域开展发掘工作（ARC SLT99）。田野工作的最终阶段，WA对三处独立区域的遗存进行了记录：隧道填土堤东段下方、临时土壤储存区占地范围内，以及原斯通农场马道下方（ARC SFB01）。