Category Archives: Iron Age

VM_365 Day 200 Difficult to date

Archaeology, Iron Age, Prehistoric pottery, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
VM 200The image for Day 200 of the VM_365 project is of a complete pottery vessel which was found on a building site somewhere in eastern Cliftonville, Margate. The significance of this pot is that it has proved very difficult to date using the conventional methods of fabric analysis and typology that archaeologists use to date prehistoric pottery.
The ceramic of most periods have ‘signatures’; typical vessel shapes and types of decoration. Sometimes fragments of pottery, or a complete vessel as in this case, can be found that defies ready interpretation.
The fabric of the vessel in the image is flint tempered and it is quite well made, but it does not belong easily in any Later Prehistoric period. The vessel can’t be from an earlier prehistoric period, before around 1500 BC,  because all Early to Middle Neolithic pots were flint tempered, but had round bases.  The other Early Prehistoric potting traditions; Late Neolithic Grooved Ware or the Early Bronze Age Beakers and Urns; were predominantly made from grog-tempered fabric.
Sometimes the context of discovery of a vessel helps to fit it into a particular period, but all we know about this vessel is that it was recovered from a building site, without any further information. Specialists who have examined the vessel have been left scratching their heads, although one has suggested a date in the Middle Iron Age, somewhere between c.400-300 BC or a little later, although it is far from typical of the pots of that period.
This interesting puzzle shows that although archaeologists have been able to characterise the typical pottery from many periods, and fit them into a complex scheme describing the development and progress of styles and potting techniques, there is always the rare possibility of an outlier which has previously been unrecognised emerging  and upsetting the established rules, leaving room for new research and ideas to be developed.
We are grateful to Nigel Macpherson Grant for today’s image and posing this ceramic conundrum.

VM_365 Day 198 Middle Iron Age painted pottery

Archaeology, Iron Age, Prehistoric pottery, Sarre, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Image of Iron age paint decorated pottery
Early to middle Iron age polychrome decorated pottery

The image for Day 198 of the VM_365 project is of a sherd of multi-coloured or ‘polychrome’ decorated fineware pottery, dating from the Early to Middle Iron Age.

This group of conjoining sherds from a small-diameter beaker or round bodied jar, made in a fine fabric, was found at Sarre in 1991. The exact dating could be narrowed down further in the future, but it can be safely dated to between  around 450-350 BC.

The body of the vessel is painted with a triangular or chevron decoration in cream to white pigment.  The triangles are infilled with red iron-oxide pigment. This fragment of vessel is probably the best example that we currently have of this type of polychrome decorated pottery from Thanet.

Although only a small fragment of the pattern is present, it is possible to reconstruct the shape of the body of the pot from the curve of the sherds and to imagine how the pattern extended over the whole surface of the  exterior of the vessel.

 

 

VM_365 Day 192 One tool, many styles in range of Mid Iron Age vessels

Archaeology, Broadstairs, Iron Age, Margate, Thanet, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Comb and impress decorated Middle Iron Age sherds from Thanet
Comb and impress decorated Middle Iron Age sherds from Thanet
Today’s image for Day 192 of VM_365 shows several sherds of decorated Early-Mid Iron Age ceramic vessels, dating from c.550-350 BC.
All the sherds are from relatively high quality vessels, finewares or sub-finewares , which have been decorated with either comb-point, comb-finished or impress-decorations.
The sherds were all found on excavations in Thanet, (shown clockwise from top left) from Margate, South Dumpton Down near Broadstairs and two from Fort Hill and Trinity Square in Margate.

The images illustrate the variety of decorative styles that could be created using a comb, or with a regular impressed pattern,

and illustrate the care that was taken over decorating the better quality pottery vessels in this period in prehistory.

VM_365 Day 180 Used Middle Iron Age loom weight

Archaeology, Iron Age, Margate, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 180

Today’s VM_365 image for Day 180 shows a worn Middle Iron Age clay loomweight from Northdown, Margate excavated in the 1970’s.

This loom weight shows evidence of heavy use wear from where it was suspended from a warp weighted loom which has created a groove in its surface. Other different types of Iron Age loomweights have been found at  Broadstairs and North Foreland.

VM_365 Day 170 Reconstructed Iron Age comb decorated jar

Archaeology, Iron Age, Margate, Prehistoric pottery, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Late Iron Age 'Belgic' comb decorated jar.
Late Iron Age ‘Belgic’ comb decorated jar.

The image for VM_365 Day 170 is of the reconstructed profile of a Late Iron Age jar with a beaded rim and combed surface decoration. This pot was found broken into many pieces in the lower fill deposits at the base of a storage pit, during an excavation on the site of Margate Football club in 2003.

The vessel is made from a grog tempered  fabric, meaning that crushed pot has been used as a filler to stiffen the clay in the body of the vessel. Pots of this type were common in the later Iron Age period 50BC to 25AD.

Vessels with these characteristics are often classed as ‘Belgic’, after Julius Caeser’s assertion that the Iron Age tribes of southern Britain, including Kent, were related to the tribes of Belgae, who lived around the northern coast of Gaul between the west bank of the Rhine to the Channel

The comb decoration has only been applied to the upper section of pot. The area below the rim was decorated with a circuit of horizontal combed lines, then the shoulders and sides of the pot were covered using a series of arching strokes from just below the horizontal line toward the middle and lower part of the vessel.

The comb decoration was common in the Late Iron Age period and there are several variations represented in the application of the decoration among the vessels found in Thanet.

VM_365 Day 169 Where earth and sky meet. Iron Age potters surface decoration techniques

Iron Age, Margate, Prehistoric pottery, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 169-1The image for VM_365 Day 169 shows a series of pottery sherds from Iron Age kitchen/storage-ware vessels from Margate, which have deliberately applied clay coarsening on the surface. The general currency of coarsewares of this type was the Early to Mid Iron Age period, between c.600 and 350 BC.

Some of the bodysherds show how the appearance of different methods of surface treatment; wet clay slurried; ‘pebble-dashed’ tacky; lumpy, sometimes produce almost bizarre surface effects on the vessels.

Some of the sherds show how the rustication tended mostly to be applied below the shoulder, although as one of the examples shows it is not always the case.

It has been suggested, with some reference to the contrast of application of coloured finishes to contemporary Halstatt/La Tene art styles, that the very evident tonal variation of the vessel finishes, the smooth and the coarse elements of the pattern, had some meaning for the maker. With the rusticated coarsewares of this type it has been suggested that the difference in visual tone represents a smooth sky or heaven above the rough lumpy surface of the earth below.

Maybe it is simply a practical innovation, without such embedded symbolism, simply making an easy-grip surface for greasy fingers on large heavy pots.

VM 365 Day 164 Earliest Iron Age red oxide painted pottery from Minnis Bay, Birchington

Archaeology, Birchington, Iron Age, Prehistoric pottery, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 164

Today’s image is of a sherd of Earliest Iron Age pottery with a bright red finish applied to its outer surface.  Around 900 BC, in the earliest phase of the Iron Age, a new technique was adopted by potters where  vessels were decorated by applying  iron-oxide powder as a slip to the outer surfaces.

Like the finger tip decoration  that was applied to bronze age on vessels that was shown on VM_365 Day 155, this technique is a skeuomorph, using the inspiration of one decorative form as a reference to create another decorative style.   The  process evolved with the deliberate intention of  emulating the bright colour of freshly made and polished bronze vessels.

The technique was only applied on thin-walled fineware bowls, which were most ike the bronze models. The sherd shown in the image is from a bowl found at Minnis Bay, Birchington which can be  dated broadly to around 900 to 600BC .

VM_365 Day 163 Moulded shoulder vessels characteristic of Early to Middle Iron Age period

Archaeology, Iron Age, Margate, Prehistoric pottery, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Early to Mid Iron Age fineware bowl with moulded shoulder, with sherds from similar vessels

Early to Mid Iron Age fineware bowl with moulded shoulder, with sherds from similar vessels

Today’s image for VM_365 Day 163 shows some examples of a characteristic of pottery from the Early to Mid Iron Age period, dating around c.600-500 BC. This earliest phase of Early to Mid Iron Age pottery is epitomised by fineware bowls that have complex, moulded shoulders. The vessel form was based on examples that were coming in to Britain from North East France and other areas of the continent.

A fairly complete example of a vessel with this characteristic shape from Fort Hill Margate is shown at the top of the image. The four sherds below are from a series of other vessels  showing variations of forms with the characteristic moulded shoulder that is typical of this period.

Vessels with this distinctive shape would not be easy to make, requiring careful and firm moulding at the shoulder junction. The pots frequently break at this point because the pieces of clay that make up the vessel’s body, formed of coils or slabs,  are sometimes poorly joined together.

The bowl and sherds shown in the VM_365 image show how small, but very characteristic pottery sherds and fragments can be used to identify the potting traditions form a specific period that are represented among the many sherds that may be present among the finds recovered from an excavated feature, or in the assemblage of pottery from a site.

The VM is grateful to Nigel Macpherson Grant for the images and information for today’s post.

VM_365 Day 158 Late Iron Age bone skewer

Archaeology, Ebbsfleet, In the Store, Iron Age, Thanet, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 158

Today’s VM_365 image shows a skewer roughly fashioned from a small animal bone.

This object was found within a Late Iron Age hut floor at Ebbsfleet, Thanet in 1990. The hut floor was made up of a 15cm thick layer of flint pebbles which was covered with a deposit consisting of pottery dating to the late Iron Age, many animal bones, some of which had been roughly fashioned into skewers or awls, a clay spindle whorl and marine shells.

It is not clear what this object would have been used for. Perhaps it was used for extracting marine molluscs from their shells, perhaps it was used in some way during weaving, or perhaps it was a general purpose tool that could be quickly fashioned and used in a myriad of ways.

VM_365 Day 157 Iron Age salt container from South Dumpton Down

Archaeology, Broadstairs, In the Store, Iron Age, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 157

Today’s image for Day 157 of VM_365 shows three views of an interesting  square pottery vessel, which may have been used as a salt container.

The square pot is made of a thick, flint tempered fabric, fired to a dark brown to black colour. The flint tempering can be seen in section where parts of the wall of the container have broken. The container was found at the Iron Age  coastal site at South Dumpton Down, Broadstairs where concentrations of post holes within a boundary enclosure seem to represent the focus of the settlements within the enclosure. The square vessel was found within the fill of one of the main groups of post holes.

The suggestion that this was a salt container was made by the ceramic specialist, Nigel Macpherson-Grant in his report on the pottery.  Because it is essential to the biological functions of livestock, and a valuable method of preserving produce to extend its life, salt was a valuable commodity in the Iron Age period, as it was throughout history. Salt may have been extracted from the sea water near to the settlement.