Category Archives: VM_365 Project

VM_365 Day 221 Early Bronze Age Copper flat axe

Archaeology, Birchington, Bronze Age, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 221

Today’s VM_365 image for Day 221 shows an Early Bronze Age flat axe that was found at Gore End, Birchington. The earliest prehistoric metalworkers used pure copper, which has been used to make this axe, making it one of the earliest examples of prehistoric metal working from Early Bronze Age Thanet.

Copper is quite a soft metal and it was later replaced by Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin,  which was much harder and could be reliably used to make a more versatile range of tools and other objects.

VM_365 Day 220 The Ebbsfleet I Late Bronze Age hoard

Archaeology, Bronze Age, Bronze Hoards, Ebbsfleet, From the Archives, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

 

The Ebbsfleet I Hoard after Jessup
The Ebbsfleet I Hoard after R. Jessup

Today’s  image for Day 220 of the VM_365 project shows another of the Bronze Age hoards from Thanet, consisting of 181 pieces, weighing approximately 27.21 kg (60lbs).

A description of the Hoard was  given by George Payne in Archaeologia Cantiana after it was passed to him by Mr W.H. Hills of Ramsgate. The hoard was found on a farm at Ebbsfleet near Minster sometime before 1895.

The objects include socketed axes, spear-heads, parts of swords and axes, belt fasteners or ‘bugle’ fittings, portions of a dagger, a knife, and a quantity of ingots.

George Payne suggested that ‘These objects formed the stock in trade of a bronze founder, who went about from one settlement to another casting implements on the spot and taking old worn and broken ones as payment for new’.

This interpretation persisted in the classification of hoards like this containing a mix of complete and broken objects as well as ingots of bronze as a Founders Hoard.

Several of these Founders Hoards have been found on Thanet, some previously featured in VM_365 including nr. Manston (Day 194, Day 196 and Day 197), The Beck Hoard and Birchington III hoard.

Reference

Payne, G. 1895, Researches and discoveries in Kent. Archaeologia Cantiana 21, xlvii-lvi

VM_365 Day 219 The toll of tide and time

Archaeology, Birchington, Bronze Age, In the Store, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 219The image for Day 219 of the VM_365 project shows one of the bronze palstave axes that were found packed together in a hoard found at St Mildred’s Bay near Birchington. The conditions of the axe is very poor, the cast metal is crumbling and discoloured and it has broken into several pieces.

The wave cut shelf on the north coast of Thanet has been the site of the discovery of many truncated prehistoric and medieval  pits, exposed as the tides cut down the chalk cliffs along the coastline. These archaeological features are known to be remnants of settlements that once occupied the rolling hill tops that occupied the surface of the land that was broken down by the sea.

The unique conditions of the preservation of the features below the sea and the sand of the foreshore has created a very different level of archaeological preservation than is generally found on the sites within Thanet’s present landmass. A woven timber pit lining preserved in one of the truncated pits at St Mildred’s Bay was shown in a previous post for VM_365 Day 65.

On the other hand, the saturation of the fills with sea water has taken a heavy toll on the bronzes that were discovered in one of the St Mildred’s Bay hoard. Unlike some of the stunningly well preserved bronze hoards that we have featured in previous VM_365 posts, the metal in the St Mildred’s Bay bronzes is decayed, discoloured and fragmented, a state that was particularly advanced in the palstave shown in today’s post.

VM_365 Day 218 Roman Painted Plaster from Broadstairs

Archaeology, Broadstairs, From the Archives, Roman, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 218

Today’s image for Day 218 of the VM_365 project shows a selection of the painted plaster fragments from the Roman building at Stone Road, Broadstairs which was excavated in 2004.

A total of 49 fragments of painted plaster were found in an extensive demolition deposit concentrated in the north west corner of the building, suggesting that the structure was a high status house.

Painted plaster in an extensive range of colours and styles has been excavated at the Villa site at Minster in Thanet,  with some of the fragments featuring in a series of previous VM_365 posts on Day 178, Day 182, Day 185, Day 188 and Day 191.

Although there are fewer fragments from Stone Road, and are generally much smaller than those at Minster,  they show a wide range of panel designs painted in hues of blue and green as well as  black. Some have suggestions of natural designs, with the third fragment from the left in the bottom row possibly representing a flower painted with blue pigment.

The excavated part of the building also contained a Bakers oven suggesting that the painted rooms were in another part of the range of buildings. Other artefacts recovered from the Stone Road Roman building  have featured as posts on VM_365, including part of a Roman spoon and a Military style belt buckle.

 

VM_365 Day 217 Art and Anglo-Saxon archaeology

Anglo Saxon, Archaeology, From the Archives, Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 217

The image for Day 217 of the VM_365 project continues yesterday’s series of images showing artistic interpretations by Len Jay of the archaeological investigation of Anglo-Saxon archaeology in Thanet .

The picture in the top left shows a series of Anglo-Saxon graves under excavation. Two archaeologists are shown in the top right, in the familiar but somewhat undignified posture that is often adopted to excavate a grave with care, without standing on a significant find or on the skeleton itself.  Anglo-Saxon cemeteries usually contain many graves, laid in groups or rows. In the Ozengell Anglo-Saxon cemetery which inspired the drawings, the graves were cut into the chalk geology and had been disturbed by many centuries of ploughing over the fields.

The grave in the centre of the image is the one shown in the previous set of pictures, which was robbed soon after it was created by the excavation of a pit through the middle of the mound.  In the centre of the grave the stratigraphy of the later cutting through the grave is demonstrated, with the brown soil of the later robber cut shown sectioned within the lighter grey fill of the earlier grave fill deposit. It is through this careful unravelling of the sequence of events represented by changes in soil colour that allows us to tell the story of the robbing of the Anglo-Saxon graves.

The lower right image shows the grave after the original fill has been removed, with the skeleton lying on the base. The clothes and weapons shown in the first image from yesterday’s post having been laid with the person who was buried, now only exist as corroded metal objects which have to be carefully excavated and conserved. The excavation is recorded in detail in plans and written descriptions and photographs are taken of the objects in place. Overhead shots of the whole grave are taken from the vantage point of the step ladder shown on the right.

The skeleton in the excavated grave is incomplete, the pelvis, lower spine and upper legs have been cut away by the robbers digging their pit into the middle of the mound. By carefully recording the location of the robber pits and comparing their position with the typical grave goods found in complete burials, it is possible to explore the targets of the grave robbers and the types of artefacts they may have been looking for.

The four reconstructions drawn by Len Jay describe all the processes that have occurred to give us one of our most valuable sources of evidence for the lives and habits of the Anglo-Saxon period. The first set of drawings trace the creation of the graves, their alteration by the intervention of other people  and the effect of the natural processes of decay. The second set of image shows how methods of archaeological investigation can explore all these previous events and processes and generate knowledge about life and death in the Anglo-Saxon period.

Like his colleague and friend Dr Dave Perkins, Len Jay wanted to convey to ordinary people how archaeologists carried out their work and to reconstruct the events that their discoveries were revealing. Both Dave and Len achieved this through their considerable artistic abilities.

Further reading:

The subject of grave robbing in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Kent is explored in detail by Dr. Alison Klevnäs in her theses titled ‘Whodunnit? Grave-robbery in early medieval northern and western Europe’ which can be downloaded as a PDF from the University of Cambridge website.  The important records of excavations in Thanet contributed evidence for this work.

 

VM_365 Day 216 Art and Anglo-Saxon archaeology

Anglo Saxon, Archaeology, Art Inspired by the Past, From the Archives, Lord of the Manor, Manston, Ramsgate, Thanet archaeology, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 216

The image for Day 216 of the VM_365 project is drawn from our slide collection, with reproductions of a series of sketches illustrating aspects of the archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon cemeteries that are such a significant part of Thanet’s archaeological landscape.

Thanet has been lucky to have had several talented illustrators among its archaeological community.  A drawing by the Trust’s first Director Dave Perkins featured on Day 111 of the VM_365 project. Today’s images were drawn by Len Jay, a founding member of the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Unit, the predecessor of the Trust for Thanet Archaeology and the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society. Len Jay was a trained artist and used his abilities to create imaginative illustrations of some of the significant aspects of the archaeology that the Thanet Unit became involved in.

The images in today’s post illustrate a common phenomenon encountered during the investigation of Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries where archaeologists began to discover that they were not always the first to have dug into the graves furnished with valuable  goods such as weapons, items of jewellery, clothing and vessels in pottery and glass. It is now recognised that many early Anglo-Saxon graves that were were robbed not long after they had been created.

The upper part of the image in today’s post shows a section through a recently created grave, with its occupant dressed in typical costume and accompanied with a shield, sword and knife. In the distance the family are leaving the graveside. In the lower image, two grave robbers have excavated a pit into the centre of the mound that marks the site of the grave, piling the spoil in a heap. They too are seen making a hasty exit with the objects they have recovered.

Grave robbing at an early period has been recognised in many of the large early medieval cemeteries of northern Europe and the phenomenon extends to the cemeteries of East Kent. Although initially it may seem that the motives are relatively simple, recent study has started to consider whether the practise has more complex meanings, perhaps associated with the growth of Christianity and the ambiguous relationship of the converted population with the pagan graves of the pre-Christian era.

Len Jay used his talents as an artist to visualise the processes that were being observed in excavations and explored their meaning through his visual representation, which complemented the body of written material that was also being generated.

 

VM_365 Day 215 Roman military buckle from Broadstairs building

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

VM 215

The  image for Day 125 is of a copper alloy object, found in the the excavation of a Roman building at Broadstairs.

On two sides of a square flat frame (top and bottom in the image) there are the remains of attachments  for a central panel of decorative openwork which is now missing. The X-Ray image on thetop right of the image shows the attachments in finer detail  A leather belt strap would have been hooked over the outer frame, under the patterned centre and over the frame again, creating a decorative adjustable buckle for the belt.

Although the connecting attachments of the openwork could not be matched exactly to any similar pieces, this style of  buckle has been found in military contexts  in Britain and across Europe.

Two variants of this sort of openwork buckle have been found at the Roman fort at Richborough, other published examples come from Dacia (modern Romania) and  Osterburken in Germany. An illustration of a similar buckle from the Fort of the Roman military unit Cohors I Breucorum from their base at Pfunz in southern Germany is shown for comparison with the Broadstairs find at the bottom right.

The question is what was this buckle doing in Broadstairs?

VM_365 Day 214 Neolithic Serrated Flint blade from Margate

Archaeology, In the Store, Margate, Neolithic, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 214

The VM_365 project’s image for Day 214 is a fine, serrated flint blade excavated from a pit dating to the Neolithic period on a site near Margate Railway Station in 2004.

The  blade is fine, partly-worn and serrated along both edges with approximately 11 serrations per 10mm.  The fine blade shows some wear indicating that it has seen some use. It has a break at the proximal-end which has removed the striking platform and crushing along the ridge of the blade along with a couple of notches taken out of one edge suggest that the blade had been hafted or mounted on a handle.

The fine serrations distributed so regularly along both edges of this blade attest to the skill and craft of the Neolithic flint worker.

 

VM_365 Day 213 Manston Beaker before Restoration

Archaeology, Beaker, From the Archives, Prehistoric pottery, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 213

The image for Day 213 of the VM_365 project is one of our pictures from the slide archive collection. Taken in 1987, it shows the Manston Beaker prior to its restoration.

The Beaker, previously featured on Day 161,  was found resting on its side and was lifted on site in a block of soil, tightly wrapped in bubble wrap, before being transported back to the laboratory where it was excavated from its soil block.

This picture shows the base of the beaker during cleaning. We often forget when we see an object cleaned up and on display how many stages it may have gone through to get to that condition. In the case of this Manston Beaker it involved the heavy restoration of its missing parts and decorative pattern.

VM_365 Day 212 Early Bronze Age Urn Conundrum

Archaeology, Broadstairs, Bronze Age, In the Store, Prehistoric pottery, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project
VM 212
The image for Day 212 of the VM_365 project shows an Early Bronze Age Urn found buried with a crouched inhumation within a ring ditch at the former Dumpton Greyhound Stadium, Ramsgate in 2000. It was excavated by Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit (KARU) and is now in the Trust’s stores.
This vessel presents a slight conundrum. Rather inconveniently our Ancestors did not always do things according to strict tradition. In this instance we do know that this ‘Urn’ is definitely of Early Bronze Age date, since it came from a crouched inhumation within a burial ring-ditch. However it rather obviously lacks any decoration and the form is not altogether informative either. Superficially, its rather basic form is quite untypical of any of the four main Early Bronze Age often richly decorated ceramic traditions – Beaker, Food Vessel, Collared Urn or Biconical Urn. However, its fabric is coarsely grog-tempered – hence its rather lumpy surface. This aspect and its buff-fired surface is much closer to some of the manufacturing trends associated with the Collared Urn tradition, current between c.2000-1600 BC so that, despite being a rather unimaginative creation, it can be confidently placed into this period at least.
This vessel joins the vessel shown on Day 200 as an example of an outlying variation in what are usually quite standard vessel forms.
The Virtual Museum would like to thank Nigel Macpherson-Grant for this information about the vessel.