Category Archives: Ramsgate

VM_365 Day 136 Ramsgate Late Neolithic Grooved Ware sherd

Archaeology, From the Archives, In the Store, Lord of the Manor, Neolithic, Ramsgate, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Late Neolithic Grooved Ware sherd
Late Neolithic Grooved Ware sherd

Today’s Image for VM_365 is of a small scrap of Late Neolithic pottery from 1976 excavation of the ring ditch of one of the ceremonial enclosures at Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate.

The sherd is a rim fragment from a tub-shaped vessel with a small-diameter. The exterior of the rim is decorated with incised grooves, the inner edge of the rim has a distinctive bevel, similar to the rims of other examples of this type of pottery. The typical decoration of the sherd with a pattern of grooves in the surface, provides the name that has been given to this ceramic tradition; Grooved Ware.

Before flat based grooved ware vessels began to manufactured, all Early and Middle Neolithic pottery in this country was made with round bases. Grooved Ware is believed to have been first used in the Orkneys, spreading southward across Britain and seems to represent the only truly ‘homegrown’ tradition in the entire history of British ceramics.

The style of decoration on this sherd, coupled with the beveled rim,  places the sherd into the Durrington Walls style, which was current during the main building phases at Stonehenge and is dated to c.2800-2300 BC

To date the tiny sherd pictured here seems to the best example of Grooved Ware archaeologists have recovered on the Isle of Thanet. Although it is small, the sherd  is a valuable hint that there may be more evidence of this important period of settlement to discover in the future.

The image and information for today’s VM_365 post were kindly provided by a guest curator, ceramic specialist Mr Nigel Macpherson-Grant

In 2007 a group of potters experimented with manufacturing Grooved Ware vessels, follow this link to the Prehistoric Ceramics Research Group website article on the process.

VM_365 Day 134 Flint butcher’s knife from Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate

Archaeology, Bronze Age, In the Store, Lord of the Manor, Neolithic, Ramsgate, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Flint knife of Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age date
Flint knife of Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age date, suited for butchering animal carcasses.

Day 134’s  VM_365 image is of a flint knife, a prehistoric flint tool, that had been re-deposited in the fill of a chalk quarry pit dating to the medieval period and sectioned in excavations carried out in 2013.

The knife  has been carefully flaked on both sides, it is slightly thinner and curved on the cutting edge. It is comfortable to hold in the hand and could have been used without being set in a wooden or bone handle or haft.  The manufacture and use of this type of flint tool spans the  Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age c.2800-1700 BC.

The knife would have been used for everyday meat processing tasks, although it is definitely not a skinning knife, which are usually thin and often polished for the careful task of smoothly separating hide from flesh. Because it is a thick and heavy tool,  it would have been ideal for butchering tasks; cutting joints; separating limbs and other heavy tasks.

VM_365 Day 127 Viking period polished and perforated shale disc

Anglo Saxon, Archaeology, Ramsgate, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, Viking, VM_365 Project
Kimmeridge shale perforated disc, later Saxon or Viking period.
Kimmeridge shale perforated disc, later Saxon or Viking period.

Our image for Day 127 of VM_365 is of this disc of Kimmeridge shale, found at Cliffsend, Ramsgate near the former shore of the Wantsum channel.

Kimmeridge oil shale is easily worked and the black surface of the material could be polished to a glossy sheen, making it attractive throughout history for manufacturing decorative objects and ornaments. In this case the ground conditions in the deposit where the disc was found have caused the surface to become pitted and rough. The disc may have been a personal ornament or been combined with other materials into a decorative or practical object.

The disc was found in a plough truncated ditch and the pottery and rubbish found in association with it suggest it probably dates to the 8th or 9th century, one of the rare finds from this Later Anglo-Saxon or Viking period in Thanet’s archaeological record.

VM_365 Day 118 Anglo Saxon Shield Boss from Monkton

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

VM 118

Today’s VM 365 Day 118 image is of the remains of  a sixth century type shield boss found within a grave at the Monkton  Anglo Saxon cemetery during pipeline work in 1982.

The shield boss was found in the grave of an adult male which had been heavily disturbed by ploughing. Only 12 centimetres of the grave’s depth remained intact. Despite the disturbance,  iron shield-grip fragments, a sword blade, bronze buckle, whet stone and a gold bracteate were also recovered from the grave.

The shield boss  fragments were located between the right elbow and left shoulder and would have been attached to a wooden shield which was laid over the body during burial.

VM_365 Day 114. Iron Age Spindle Whorl

Archaeology, Iron Age, Ramsgate, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 114

Today’s image is an Iron Age ceramic spindle whorl found at Ebbsfleet, near Ramsgate in 1990.

Spindle whorls such as these  were used when spinning by hand and placed on a spindle to add weight to help maintain and increase the speed of the spin needed to turn wool into yarn   Spindle whorls, along with other objects associated with cloth making such as loom weights and weaving combs are commonly found on Iron Age sites.

This spindle whorl was found on the surface of a layer interpreted as a hut floor. Other finds associated with the floor included late Iron Age pottery, bone skewers, animal bone and shell.

Reference.

Perkins, D. R. J.  1992. Archaeological Evaluations at Ebbsfleet in the Isle of Thanet. Archaeologia Cantiana CX, 269-311.

VM_355 Day 112. Roman Brooch from Minster.

Archaeology, Ramsgate, Roman, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 112

Today’s image is another brooch found at the Roman villa site at Abbey Farm, Minster.

This lozenge shaped plate broochwith an intact pin, although bent, is made of copper alloy.  It measures 33mm long and 18mm wide and has a circular hollow back. There is a central raised projection that was filled with enamel that is now coloured yellow and dates to the 2nd to 3rd centuries.

Other Roman brooches from the site have been posted on Day 88, Day 89, Day 90 and Day 96.

VM_365 Day 91. Underground Industrial Heritage Revealed

Archaeology, Landscape, Ramsgate, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

Tunnel Railway signOur post today for VM_365 Day 91 comes from an exciting weekend field trip by the Trust and friends to the Ramsgate Tunnels.

The letters arranged on the wall at the entrance to the chalk passage are from the sign for the Tunnel Railway, as the complex of railway lines and stations came to known.

The site combines a significant experience of the industrial archaeology heritage of the Ramsgate area, with a site associated with the defences of the coastal region in the First  and Second World War. A complex of passages, cut into the chalk to create air raid shelters for thousands of people, encircle the town of Ramsgate and the Ramsgate Tunnels experience allows a long section of the air raid shelters to be explored.

Within the tunnels is preserved the record of the many amateur urban explorers who explored the tunnels while they were closed to general public access. The names, slogans and dates scribbled and painted on the walls show how the Ramsgate tunnels remained in the consciousness of local people, their fascinating history waiting to be brought to life as a very popular public attraction.

VM_365 Day 85. Bronze Age Incense Cup

Archaeology, Bronze Age, Ramsgate, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

84

This unusual little vessel is a perforated Incense or Accessory cup of Early Bronze Age date. The vessel was found in the late 1970’s in a pit at the centre of a ring ditch which had been partially destroyed by the construction of the Haine Road at Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate.  The ring ditch is one of a group of at least seven Neolithic and Bronze Age Monuments located on a chalk hilltop overlooking Pegwell Bay; one of the major ceremonial sites of prehistoric Thanet.

 

VM_365 Day 72. Geological Phenomena

Archaeology, Geology, Ramsgate, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
Patterned Ground
Patterned Ground

Today’s image shows a common geological phenomena that we sometimes encounter on archaeological sites called patterned ground. It looks rather like the ripples you get in the clouds called a Mackerel sky. It is very visible in this picture, taken in 2002, at a site on the cliff top at Ramsgate. The ripples in the ground are actually masking a large Iron Age and Roman enclosure ditch on the left hand side of the picture and a middle Bronze Age mortuary structure comprising a small ring ditch surrounding a group of pits containing pottery vessels and cremated human bone in the north part of the site.

Around 21,000 years ago, large areas of patterned ground were formed as the land surface went through cycles of freezing and thawing. Fine clay and silts percolated into the fractures in the chalk producing the linear stripes and polygons that you can see here.

VM_365 Day 66 What’s in a dish?

Archaeology, Ramsgate, Roman, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 66

Today’s image shows a handmade, straight sided dish that was found in a Roman grave at Ramsgate. The dish, made from grog and quartz sand tempered fabric with a few shell inclusions, had been heavily used before it was placed in the grave at the feet of a young woman aged between 18-25 years along with two other vessels.

There are many questions we would like to ask when we find objects in these circumstances:

Did this vessel belong to the occupant of the grave or to a family member? What did she use the dish for? Did she use it for eating from or did she use it in cooking, perhaps to make pies* or other meals? Were the knife marks in the base made by her?

Despite all our efforts archaeology may not be able to answer these questions from the evidence that remains.

*Pies are mentioned in a collection of cookery recipes, Apicius, believed to date from the late 4th to 5th centuries.