Category Archives: Ramsgate

VM_365 Day 186 Courtstairs cow skull pins down Old Father Time

Archaeology, Neolithic, Prehistoric pottery, Ramsgate, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 187For our image on Day 186 of the VM_365 project and the first day of 2015, we have an object that has been significant to measuring the passage of time in one of the significant sites for the Neolithic archaeology of Thanet.

Among the deposits filling the deep pits hat made up the Neolithic causewayed enclosure at Pegwell were many fragments of bone, mainly representing large cattle species.  Large skull fragments. representing part of  the front of the head with the horn cores attached, were found in  two of the pits. In both cases the skull fragments were lying in the deposits that were close to the base and therefore early in the sequence. The one pictured today is lying on the front of the skull so the interior is exposed uppermost.

The animal remains have a tale to tell in themselves, presenting archaeologists with questions such as  what species were present, what parts of the animal are represented and how they have been incorporated into the deposits. However, another property of the organic animal bone is that it can be used to provide a fixed point in time by using it to obtain a radiocarbon date.

The position of the skull shown in the image was carefully recorded in the sequence of excavated deposits. If  a scientific method like carbon dating can give an absolute date  to one part of the sequence, it can be used to infer a similar date  for all the material associated with it.  The dating of the skull to 3636-3625 cal. BC has been used to confirm with independent data the suspected period when the distinctive Early Neolithic pottery recovered from the site and shown in VM_365 Day 172 was made. The absolute date given by the skull also helps to understand the dating of the large assemblage of flintwork, including the fine flint sickle shown on Day 173.

Dating a fixed point in the sequence also gives a relative date for the deposits that lie above it in the sequence, they must be some degree later than the date obtained. Ideally a number of dates needs to be obtained to strengthen the argument for dating the whole sequence but resources were limited on this site and it has only been possible to carry out one carbon dating so far. With limited resources the choice of material to date  becomes significant, making the cattle skull fragments that were deposited so low in the sequence of soils filling the pits very important to dating the site.

Using the possibilities of scientific dating methods to explore an object like the skull, archaeologists can examine the problems of a site from different angles, adding to our understanding of both the fixed and relative dates of our excavated sequences of deposits. This skull payed its part in one strategy to understand the absolute chronology of the development of a site, determining exactly when certain events occurred.

 

VM_365 Day 181 13th century medieval pitcher from Manston

Archaeology, In the Store, Medieval, Ramsgate, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 181

The image for Day 181 of VM_365 is of the near-complete profile of an Early Medieval pitcher in Canterbury sandy ware fabric. The surface of the pot is decorated with two or three broad incised horizontal  wavy-line decoration which extends around the body.

The vessel is unglazed which is an indicator of its early date in the sequence of Canterbury sandy ware pitchers.  The preferred dating for this vessel is 13th century, c.1125-1150/1175 AD. The pottery was excavated near Manston in Thanet in 2003.

VM_365 Day 172 Early Neolithic Pottery from Ramsgate

Archaeology, Neolithic, Ramsgate, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
VM 172Today’s VM_365 image for Day 172 shows one of the sherds of pottery found  in 2007 in the ditch fills of an Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure at Court Stairs, Ramsgate.
This sherd is typical of the Southern Decorated tradition which was current during the second half of the Early Neolithic, broadly datable to between c.3600-3350 BC. In this case, the sherd has been indirectly dated by Carbon dating of an ox skull to 3636-3625 cal. BC.

VM_365 Day 171 A feast of flintwork, blades from Neolithic site at Pegwell

Archaeology, From the Archives, Neolithic, Ramsgate, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Selection of flint baldes from Neolithic site at Pegwell Bay
Selection of flint blades from Neolithic site at Pegwell Bay

Today’s image for VM_365 Day 171 is of a selection of blade flakes from the flintwork that was found in an excavation on a site at Courtstairs, near Pegwell Bay in 2007.

Although only one stretch of conjoined pits forming a curving line were exposed in the excavation, the finds from the site showed that a sample of the second Neolithic Causewayed enclosure to be found in Ramsgate area had been revealed.

Most of the finely worked flint dated to the Earlier Neolithic period, however a significant proportion was residual, with only a few contexts containing only fresh-looking single period lithics.  Other contexts had a mix of fresh and earlier residual material.

Many blade flakes were recovered from the pit fills, some contexts producing significant quantities. Finely worked blades and bladelets which had been soft hammer-struck from blade cores were particularly common, with serrated blades frequently represented.

The flintwork form this site is a rich source of information on the craft and technology in use in this period and there will be more to come from this site in future VM_365 posts.

 

 

VM_365 Day 161 Beaker from Manston, Ramsgate

Archaeology, Beaker, Bronze Age, In the Store, Ramsgate, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 161bToday’s VM_365 image shows a Beaker vessel, which has been heavily restored, that accompanied the same burial as the  plano-convex flint knife and ‘V’ perforated jet button shown on Day  159 and Day 160.

The Beaker was found on its side on the base of the grave which was cut into the chalk geology. One large sherd from the neck and rim were found lying about 10 cm away from the main body, suggesting that the burial had been disturbed at some point in its history, possibly when a later Anglo Saxon burial may have been cut into the earlier burial.

A radiocarbon date from bone from the skeleton buried in  the grave dates the burial to 1680±50 BC.

The beaker is approximatley 10cm high with a base diameter of 6cm is made of light brown fabric. Grey patches of firing clouds on the body are indicative of an open firing. The core of the fabric  is grey, indicating that the short firing at a low temperature had not succeeded in burning out the natural organic inclusions in the clay.

The decoration on the vessel was made with a toothed comb, which has been carelessly used. On the upper part of the vessel the impressions of the comb’s teeth are so blurred that they seem to be incised. The decorative scheme consists of rows of chevrons, encircling combed lines and filled triangles. There is a basal zone of paired finger nail impressions

The vessel is unusual in that although the fabric is fine, the vessel is well fired and finished but the vessel is  asymmetrical and the decoration has been carelessly applied. The lop sided shape of the vessel is possibly a result of the clay being too wet, causing it to sag.

VM_365 Day 160 ‘V’ perforated Jet Button

Archaeology, Beaker, Bronze Age, In the Store, Ramsgate, Uncategorised, Uncategorized, VM_365 Project

VM 161

Today’s image shows the front and back views of a jet button that was found within the same grave as yesterday’s plano-convex flint knife from Manston, near Ramsgate in 1987.

The jet button was found resting on the floor of the grave to the west of the skull. Jet buttons of this ‘V’ perforation type that are also associated with a flint knife and a Beaker vessel are known as far afield as Devon, Berkshire and Wiltshire.

VM_365 Day 159 Flint Knife from Manston

Archaeology, Beaker, Bronze Age, Ramsgate, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

V 159

Today’s VM_365 image shows a plano-convex flint knife found within a grave that was excavated at the centre of a Bronze Age barrow at Manston, near Ramsgate in 1987.

The grave contained the remains of a slightly built young adult in a crouched position accompanied by the flint knife, which was located just above the skull, as well as a jet button and a long-necked beaker vessel.

 

VM_365 Day 141Barbed and Tanged Arrowhead from Ramsgate

Bronze Age, Ramsgate, Uncategorised, Uncategorized, VM_365 Project

VM 141

Today’s VM-365 Day 141 image is of an  Early Bronze Age, flint, barbed and tanged arrowhead found during excavations by Thanet Archaeological Society at Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate in 2012.

This example is almost as pristine as the day it was made, is unpatinated and has a date range of c. 2300-1600 BC. It is missing its left hand barb which may have been broken whilst it was being made.

The arrowhead was found within the topsoil while cleaning the stripped surface of the site prior to excavation.

With thanks to Nigel Macpherson-Grant for supplying the information and photo.

 

VM_365 Day 137 Two Beaker sherds from Lord of the Manor Ramsgate

Archaeology, Beaker, Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Two Beaker sherds from Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate.
Two Beaker sherds from Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate.

Toady’s image for VM_365 Day 137 is of two admittedly small, but important pottery sherds of Beaker vessels,  like the  Grooved Ware sherd from Day 136, the two Beaker sherds were found together in the 1976 excavations at Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate.

The sherds are from Phase 2 of the development of the Lord of the Manor 1 monument, a period of Early Bronze Age activity associated with the re-use of the earliest ring ditched enclosure as a burial site. In this phase a burial was placed within a smaller ring-ditch that was cut inside the circuit of the earlier large causewayed enclosure ditch, to create a round barrow.

The smaller sherd on the left of the image is decorated with a cord impression, which would have extended over the whole body of the vessel. The second sherd on the right is decorated with a pattern in zones, created with impressions from the teeth of a comb.

The first cord impressed style is the earliest, dating between c.2300-200 BC. The second comb decorated sherd is marginally later, around 2100-1900 BC. Both sherds are made of an identical fine oxidised fabric, with a fine silty fabric matrix and fine crushed pot grog tempering. Both have a similar neat, finely executed  decoration and so can reasonably be thought of as contemporary vessels.

Both sherds were found in a small pit, located  outside the ditch enclosing the central burial. The two sherds indicate a date between c.2100-2000 BC for the feature, although this has not yet been confirmed by Carbon14 dating.

Once again today’s VM_365 image and information on the pottery has been provided by ceramic specialist Nigel Macpherson-Grant.