Category Archives: Places

VM_365 Day 117 Anglo Saxon Sword from Sarre

Anglo Saxon, Birchington, In the Store, Uncategorised, Uncategorized, VM_365 Project

VM 117

Today’s image for Day 117 of VM_365 is of an Anglo Saxon Sword and an X-Ray taken when it was being conserved.

The sword was excavated from grave 275 at the Anglo Saxon cemetery at Sarre in 1990. Measuring 0.9 metres long, the sword was found above the skeleton of an adult male aged between 25 to 30 years old and may have been laid on a coffin lid rather than next to the body.

The X-Ray revealed a faint herringbone shadow indicating pattern-welded construction with added cutting edges. The tang and shoulder of the blade show traces of a hilt and guard, probably of bone, while the downward side of the blade retained evidence of a wooden scabbard.

The end of the tang was associated with the fragmentary remains of an iron ring suggesting this was a ring-hilted sword, although without the decorative hilt furniture usually associated with swords of this type.

 

VM_365 Day 116 Anglo Saxon Buckle

Anglo Saxon, Archaeology, Birchington, In the Store, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 116

Today’s image is of a tiny  decorated buckle found at the Anglo Saxon cemetery at Sarre, near Birchington in 1990. It was found within grave 288,  disturbed in antiquity, with the bones of the skeleton, possibly a male aged 30-35 years, piled at the foot of the grave.

This small buckle dating to the 6th-7th century is made of bronze with a folded rectangular plate fastened by three rivets. It would have been mounted on a strap rather than a belt as the loop could only accept a strap end less than 10mm wide. It is decorated with incised lines, punched rings and lines of punched dots. Buckles of this form are common but as they are more usually plain, this decorated example is slightly more unusual.

Reference

Perkins, D. R. J. 1992. The Jutish Cemetery at Sarre Revisited: Part II. Archaeologia Cantiana CX, 83-120.

VM_365 Day 115 Iron Age Loom Weight

Archaeology, Iron Age, Margate, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 115Following on  from Day 110 and Day 114’s Iron Age woollen cloth making theme, today’s image is of a fired clay Iron Age Loom weight found at Northdown, Margate during excavations in 1971.

Simple warp weighted looms designed to stand against the wall were commonly used to weave cloth during this period. The loom weights, such as the one shown above, were tied to the bottom of the warp (vertical) threads to add tension whilst the cloth was being woven.

VM_365 Day 113. Iron Age Faience Beads from North Foreland, Broadstairs

Archaeology, Broadstairs, Iron Age, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Two of three faience beads found with an Iron Age burial at North Foreland, Broadstairs
Two of three faience beads found with an Iron Age burial at North Foreland, Broadstairs

Today’s image for VM_365 Day 113 shows two beads made from an early type of glass called faience. These were two of three that were found at the neck of the skeleton of a woman buried in the fill of an old grain storage pit at North Foreland, Broadstairs in the Iron Age. The third bead had decayed so far it could not be recovered.

These beads were probably strung on a necklace, but the cord joining them and any other beads in organic material such as wood have not survived.

Beads like this were made from an uncommon material, based on a manufacturing technique that ultimately originated in Egypt and so are thought to have been items that carried a high prestige in the Iron Age.

The beads with this burial add a layer of detail to the interpretation of whether it was part of a deliberate and formal rite, or whether it was in some way hasty or casual, which the association with an abandoned feature of the nearby settlement seems to suggest.

VM_365 Day 111. Shale bracelet from Margate

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

VM 111

Today’s image is part of an Iron Age shale bracelet found during an archaeological evaluation at Hartsdown, Margate in 1995. The bracelet was found in a storage pit that had been filled with rubbish when it was no longer needed.

The bracelet is carved from Kimmeridge shale with ground faces on the front and back, the inner and outer surfaces are unpolished.

VM_365 Day 110. Iron Age Weaving Comb

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

VM 110

Today’s image is of an Iron Age weaving comb from the Iron Age settlement at Dumpton Gap, Broadstairs.

Most clothing would have been made from sheeps wool woven by hand on wooden looms. Combs such as these were used to push threads in place while weaving. Other artefacts associated with cloth making such as loom weights, used to hold the threads taut on the loom, and spindle whorls, used for making the yarn are also commonly found on settlement sites.

This particular comb was found in a rubbish pit dating to the late Iron Age, around 25 BC-25 AD. It is made from animal bone and has been decorated although the irregular lines you can see on the surface are caused by tiny plant rootlets scaring the surface whilst it was in the ground.

It is not clear if this comb had actually been used as it appears to be unfinished. If you look carefully at the upper part of the comb there are four circles marked out, two overlapping, and two others are visible in the middle on the right side. These circles were scored using a compass and would then have been carved to form ring and dot decoration. The decoration on this comb did not progress beyond scoring the circles; perhaps it was a practice piece, as two sets of the circles appear to overlap and it was discarded, perhaps the teeth broke before the decoration could be finished, or, perhaps it was needed before it could be finished and was used anyway.

VM_365 Day 109. Roman Kitchen Round up

Archaeology, Broadstairs, Roman, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 109

For Day 109 of VM_365 our image shows a line-up of the images of the reconstructible vessels that were present in the dump of pottery from the Roman Building at Fort House, Broadstairs. Each of the pots, a samian cup, a poppy head Beaker, a flagon, dish, mortarium and two storage jars, one small and one very large , has been shown in earlier posts which have told the story of the Roman site in Broadstairs where they were found and how the vessels were excavated and reconstructed.

The images have been scaled to show the range of sizes in the deposit and you might be able to pick out  some of the individual  vessels that are illustrated in the lower part of the image which shows a photograph of the deposit at the time of the excavation. The pottery assemblage from this deposit (context 1022) was the largest from the excavation site at Fort House, with 841 sherds weighing in at 29.815 kg.

Analysis of the forms and fabrics indicated that at least 25 vessels are represented, these include one flagon, six jars, three bowls, two dishes, four beakers and two storage jars. At least two cups were present and one mortaria. There were three other vessels that could not be identified. One of the finest pots present is a complete cup in Central Gaulish samian fabric (Dr. 33 type).

The fabric of the vessels can tell us something about their manufacturers and the markets that supplied the pottery used on the site. Nearly half of the pottery was made in hand-made ‘Native Coarse Ware’ fabric, fired in high temperature kilns to a hard finish. A quarter of the material was supplied by Roman pottery kilns located along the Thames, which produced vessels in Black Burnished 2 fabric, North Kent Fineware and other greywares. Three of the pots may have been manufactured locally and the samian cup would have been imported.

The flagon and the mortarium that have been reconstructed were products of Roman pottery kilns located in Canterbury. The Mortarium probably came from a kiln that is known to have been close to Dane John mount in Canterbury, or it may be the product of a closely related manufacturer. As one sherd from a jar made in a Canterbury Greyware fabric is the only example of  the products of the kilns of the Canterbury Greyware industry, the range of fabrics represented indicates that the date of the whole group of vessels is later than 175 AD.

The freshly broken condition of most of the vessels that were represented in this assemblage suggests that they were dumped, in one action, immediately after breakage around AD 200, or soon afterwards. The characteristics of the breaks in the pots, which often emanate from a single point where a piece is missing, suggest they might have been deliberately smashed, perhaps with a sharp object.

These vessels can reveal a fascinating snapshot of a moment in time when Broadstairs was part of the Roman world, but we will never really know the full story of what happened to create the pottery dump which has generated such a valuable trail of evidence.

 

 

 

 

VM_365 Day 108. Roman Native Coarse Ware jar from Broadstairs

Archaeology, Broadstairs, Roman, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 108Today’s VM_365 image is the vessel we featured being reconstructed yesterday from the Roman Kitchen at Fort House, Broadstairs. This everted rim storage jar is made in a black ‘Native Coarse Ware’ fabric similar to the dish shown on Day 104. It is one of six storage jars of a similar size and fabric and dates between 170-250 AD.

VM_365 Day 106. Roman Poppy head beaker from Broadstairs

Archaeology, Broadstairs, Roman, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 106Today’s image shows another of the vessels from the Roman Kitchen at Fort House, Broadstairs.

This vessel is one of the smaller ones present in the assemblage, it measures approximately 100mm in diameter and the height without the rim is 85mm, about a tenth of the size of the vessel we showed yesterday. It is of a type known as a poppy-head beaker, so called because when whole the vessel resembles the seed head of a poppy. We don’t know if the Romans would have made the association with the shape though.

This little vessel is nearly complete although it is missing its rim. It is made of Kentish, Upchurch-type ware with a date of 130-170 AD and has a narrow incised border and the body is covered with a pattern of tiny raised dots distinctive of these types of vessels.

VM_365 Day 105. Roman Storage Jar from Broadstairs

Archaeology, Broadstairs, Roman, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 105

Today’s image for VM_365 Day 105 shows the largest of the vessels that were reconstructed from the pot sherds that seem to have come from a kitchen at the Roman building excavated at Fort House, Broadstairs. Among the fragments recovered were 147 pieces from this large storage jar, some of them very large. Pieces of this vessel, withtheir distinctive combed surface decoration are very obvious in the image of the pottery dump shown in VM_365 Day 98.

The sherds making up the rim are pictured in the front left of the picture published for VM_365 Day 100. The pot had a diameter of around 36cm making it much larger than any of the other vessels present, dwarfing the smallest cups and jars. The outer surface of the vessel had been fired to a red colour, while the interior had gone black. The outer surface was combed while it was still soft to create a pattern of vertical stripes over the whole body.

Although a large number of pieces could be joined together, it was only possible to reconstruct the full profile of one large slice of the vessel’s body due to its size, using a series of large interconnected sherds which are shown in the image. However, one section  was enough to create the drawing of the whole vessel that lies behind the image of the sherds. The curve of the reconstructed section can be projected to show the volume of the whole pot.

Like many of the vessels excavated in the kitchen pot dump, the manufacturing traits of the grog tempered fabric of the storage jar reflected the transition from a Late Iron Age ‘Belgic’ potting tradition into a more Romanised fabric, of a type known as ‘Native Coarse Ware’. Vessels of this type were produced from the late Iron Age into the 2nd century of the Roman period, this one probably in the range of 70-150 AD.

What would such a large jar be used for? Perhaps for storing clean water, or perhaps another liquid like milk. It may also have been used in another cooking or preserving process such as brining or curing a large piece of meat.