Category Archives: Thanet

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 190 Roman baby feeding bottle spout

Archaeology, Roman, Roman pottery, St Nicholas, Thanet, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 190

The image for VM_365 Day 190 shows two views of a small ceramic object, found in an excavation at St. Nicholas in Thanet, which has an interesting and perhaps unexpected origin.
The image on the right  shows that the object is hollow, so likely to be some form of spout. At the bottom right of the flat end are four little ceramic pins, that were used to key the spout on to the body of a vessel .
The object can be identified from other examples as a spout from a baby feeding bottle, dating to the Mid Roman period, probably the later second century AD.  Baby feeding bottles of many different shapes and forms are known from many periods in history. The spout would have been be attached to a small round-bodied pot, which was comfortable hold in the palm and fingers, probably with a flat base to allow it to put down to stand without spilling the contents.
This object is perhaps one of the most interesting examples of the way that humans have created objects to supplement or even replace natural processes. In this case the object may have been used in circumstances where perhaps natural feeding was not possible, extending the potential of a baby to survive and grow.
The pottery fabric  suggests that the vessel may have been made by Romanised indigenous people, rather than by Roman Gauls or even Romans from Italy.  Perhaps the pre-Roman people had their own ways to feed babies, but in this case they seem to have adopted Romanised version of the baby feeder.

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.