The Isle of Thanet is situated at the south eastern corner of Britain and covers an area of approximately 40 sq miles.

By circa 5500 BC rising sea levels formed the Wantsum Channel separating Thanet from the rest of Kent. Measuring 4km at its widest extent the Wantsum was crossed in medieval times and probabaly earlier, by a ferry at Sarre.

By 1650 AD the Wantsum channel had silted up so far that it was no longer navigable by the larger vessels of the day (Perkins 1999a: 148), today the river Stour and a brook that still bears the name Wantsum are all that remain of this once important sea lane.

As well as the silting of the Wantsum Channel the Isle of Thanet has also been affected by coastal erosion of the chalk cliffs. One estimate of this erosion puts the rate of loss at thirty metres per century (Perkins 1999a: 150).

The prehistoric coastline of the Isle of Thanet  was very different from how it is today; much of the archaeology of the earliest periods has  been lost to coastal erosion or to rising sea levels.

Despite this Thanet is an area with a rich archaeological heritage,one estimate is Thanet has 37% of all known crop marks of archaeological sites in Kent despite only constituting 2.25% of the Kent land area (Perkins 1999b: 20).

The Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age)  covers the period from 500,000 years before present to around 10,000 BC; it is during this vast expanse of time that modern man will have first come to what is now the Isle of Thanet.

Although there are no known or excavated occupation sites for this period a number of finds from across Thanet attest to the presence of hunter-gatherers during the Palaeolithic period.

A pointed Acheulian handaxe found at the Thanet Reach Business Park (Pictured Left - top) and a twisted ovate handaxe (Pictured Left - bottom) from the excavations at ASDA store Westwood (ASW 99) are examples of flint tools from this period.

During the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) period from 10,000 BC too 4,000 BC the hunters learnt to exploit new food sources such as shellfish, vegetable foods and forest animals like deer, wolf and bear (Perkins et. al. 1987: 6). These changes in subsistence practices meant that there was also a change in the types of flint tools produced during the Mesolithic. A number of these smaller microliths have been found during the excavations at the Thanet Reach Business Park (TRP 96).

TOP

A number of important changes occur during the Neolithic (New Stone Age) period (4,000-2300 BC), chief among them is the change from hunting and gathering to settled farming communities that grew their own crops and herded their own animals.

Of equal importance is the adoption of pottery which becomes, along with flint, the most common type of artefact found on archaeological sites in Thanet.

This more settled way of life allowed for an increase in the population, which is reflected in an increase in the number of sites found across Thanet. As well as an increase in the number of sites there is also a greater variation in the types of site found, as well as occupation sites, isolated burials and field systems we also see towards the end of the Neolithic period the construction of the burial mounds known as round barrows across Thanet.

One of the  earliest occupation sites  to have been excavated  is the causewayed enclosure discovered during the construction of the Ramsgate Harbour Approach Road by Canterbury Archaeological Trust.

Some of the most impressive excavated Neolithic round barrows are from the excavations at the Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate (LOM 77) where a total of seven round barrows were discovered. One of these barrows may even be a henge monument.

The appearance of these monuments in the Thanet landscape indicates a level of social organisation in the Neolithic beyond that found in earlier periods.

The large number of round barrows found across Thanet, one estimate puts the number at 138 (Perkins 1987: 10), suggest that the Isle was a centre of local or even regional importance in the Neolithic period.

Many of the developments in the later Neolithic continue into the Bronze Age, there is for example evidence for the reuse of some Neolithic round barrows into the Bronze Age period (Macpherson-Grant 1980: 11).

The major development in the Bronze Age (2300-700 BC) is the introduction and development of bronze technology like the ability to cast objects such as the Bronze axe head pictured below, accompanying this is a further rise in the scale and complexity of settlements across the Isle of Thanet.

The site of South Dumpton Down (SDD 94) was extensively excavated and revealed a site with Middle Bronze Age and Late Bronze – Early Iron Age occupation. Other excavated sites found across Thanet with Bronze Age activity included Manston Road Ramsgate (MRR 04) and Monkton Court Farm (MCF 92) where the discovery of a hoard of bronze objects led to an evaluation of the site.

Other Bronze Age hoard sites include the Birchington hoard and the St Mildreds Bay hoard (Perkins 1999a: 60-88).

The Iron Age (700 BC-43 AD) saw the construction of a number of large hill fort sites across Thanet, one of the largest being North Foreland Broadstairs (NFB99/03).

These large sites once thought of as defended strongholds are now seen as having served the focus of occupation in an area and would have operated as centres for the exchange of goods, for religious practices and as the centre of power for the local chieftains.

As well as the larger hill fort sites like North Foreland other important sites like South Dumpton Down (SDD 94) also contain phases of Iron Age occupation showing that the Isle of Thanet was well populated by the Iron Age with people living in both large and small settlements across the island.

With the gradual exposure of southern Britain to the influence of the  Roman Empire in the early 1st Century, the Isle of Thanet became incorporated in a world trade system that spread across the  Mediterranean and even beyond into Africa and Asia.

Although there had been much contact between the prehistoric inhabitants of Thanet and their neighbours in both Kent, France and the Low Countries it is during the Romano British period (43-450 AD) that the Isle of Thanet benefited from being on a key trade route from the Thames Estuary to the Roman Province of Belgica (Perkins 1987: 25).

Some of the best evidence for this contact in Thanet comes from the Roman Villa site at Abbey Farm Minster (AFM96-99, 01-04). This long running training and research excavation has led to the discovery of a substantial villa complex that was at the centre of an estate possibly supplying the Roman town and forts at Richborough and Reculver. Features such as the two chambered malt kiln dating to the 4th century pictured below have proved that Thanet was at the heart of Roman Britain.

Other notable sites of the Roman Period on Thanet include the Tivoli Villa in Margate and newly discovered settlement and buildings near Bishops Avenue  (BAB 04) and Stone Road at North Foreland, Broadstairs (SNB 04).

The main evidence of the Anglo-Saxon period in Thanet (450-1066 AD) is the large number of extensive and early period cemeteries that are found all over the Island.

The largest of these such as Ozengell or Lord of the Manor (LOM 77) is one of the most important Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in the country, but there are many other burial sites that are of equal value to aiding our understanding of Anglo-Saxon Thanet; these include the St Peters Refuse Destructor site and recent discoveries of a small grave group by Wessex Archaeology at Cliffsend Farm.

There is much less evidence for occupation during the Anglo-Saxon period,  as well as a number of Saxon graves a range of Anglo-Saxon settlement features were found during the construction of the Sarre Pipeline (SSL 90). 

During the construction of a Tesco store in Manston Road, Ramsgate during 1996-7 a total of five Anglo-Saxon sunken floored buildings and associated features were excavated by Wessex Archaeology providing some insight into the settlement pattern during this period of the islands past. Excavations by the Trust for Thanet Archaeology at Woodchurch, Thanet uncovered another Saxon Sunken Floored Building with pottery, an Iron  knife and fragments of a bone comb.

Evidence for Medieval Thanet (1066-1547 AD) comes from many sites on which whole or parts of the original buildings still survive.

One such site is Salmestone Grange (SMG 79) where excavations in the ground of the building uncovered a number of features from the medieval period.

Excavations in 1978 also uncovered the remains of All Saints Church in Shuart (ASS 78) an abandoned medieval village in western Thanet.

Recently excavations at East Northdown (ENF 04) have uncovered structures dating from the 13th to 17th centuries.

TOP