From the sorting and refitting of the mass of pottery from the Kitchen dump, some very distinctive vessels began to emerge and although every sherd was present, some vessels were represented by enough pieces to make a substantial reconstruction.
In the image today the full circuit of the rim of a very large vessel has been assembled. In the tray to the right, the sherds from another nearly complete mixing bowl were gathered together, ready to be re-fitted.
With substantial elements reconstructible, the vessels could be identified very precisely…
Each of the sets of sherds that had been lifted from the deposit was carefully washed and then laid out in piles that represented an individual vessel. Of course there were stray sherds, pieces of the puzzle each vessel had become that didn’t belong in the set they had been put with when lifted. Each unknown sherd could be tested against the vessel groups and if possible placed with the right set.
Inevitably there were sherds missing from some vessels and others that seemed not to belong to any of the large sets. Each isolated sherd represents another interesting vessel in itself but a single fragments is perhaps not as impressive as the near complete examples that were gathered together in the process.
Once each group had been assembled, with as many sherds as could be located, the job of examining, identifying and counting the pots could begin…
The archaeological sequence tells us that the buildings may have been abandoned in the later 3rd century, as the stone lined cellar we excavated had been at least partly filled in with a yellowish gritty deposit. Later on a deep ditch or pit had been cut from ground level through the backfill of the cellar.
We can say that this happened around 300 AD because of the ceramic material that was found at the base of the pit. Covered by a sticky dark soil deposit with many oyster shells contained in it was a dense mass of pottery sherds and large sections of vessels. The sherds lay over several large rounded boulders of the type used to build the walls of the cellar, which may have come from the demolition of the upper parts of the structure, tipped in before the pottery was dumped.
Our image today shows the layer of sherds after they had been isolated and defined carefully by the archaeological team. A close look at the image shows how many different types of vessel were represented.
As the vessels were removed, each group of sherds or distinctive vessel was surveyed to locate its position and then the sherds were carefully removed. Our pottery specialists examined and dated each of the vessels, concluding that they formed a very tightly dated group, which we can say form the archaeological evidence were certainly all dumped in the pit or ditch at a very similar time, if not all at once.
Although little was left of the building we excavated, a deposit like this has the potential to tell a detailed micro-story in the history of the structure and consideration of each of the vessels and the group itself gives valuable insights into the use and eventual abandonment of the site. Our initial interpretation form the vessels recovered are that they are the contents of a Kitchen, with the vessels representing part of a working set of crockery that were probably in use together.
Over the next series of VM_365 posts we will explore more of the detail of this interesting discovery, the connections between them and the stories they generate about this important site.
Today’s image is a map reconstructed by the Trust from various sources to show what our corner of Europe looked like at the end of the last Ice Age, approximately 10,000 years ago. Look carefully and you can see the outline of present day Thanet hidden among all that landmass although at that time it would just have been a hilltop overlooking the river valleys to the north and east.
Links
There are a series of maps and articles that give more background to the construction of the map here: dons maps ice age
Our image today for VM_365 Day 96 is of another of the enamelled copper alloy brooches that were found at the excavations of the Roman Villa at Abbey Farm, Minster. Enamelled brooches like this were made in the later 2nd century AD.
The lozenge shaped, equal ended plate brooch, has two circular lugs at either end covering the catch plate and two equally spaced circular lugs on either side. The brooch has been cast so that the front rises in two stages to form a lozenge shaped cell in the central area, matching the shape of the outer edge. The cell is filled with blue enamel with white glass spots inset at each angle. The back of the plate is a circular hollow between the two ends of the clasp.
The brooch was found during a metal detector survey over the plough soil of the field in 2004, while trenches were being excavated on another part of the site. A wider survey of an excavation site using methods like metal detecting or field walking can often reveal finds that have been moved from their original context, usually when cultivation of the ground has disturbed the archaeological features below. The Villa at Abbey Farm had been very heavily truncated by ploughing and general erosion, reducing most of the site below foundation level. Finds from the wider area of the site where many of the artefacts like this brooch are dispersed can provide some information on the type and date of the archaeology that has been lost.
Other brooches from the same Roman Villa site have been shown in our posts on Day 90 , Day 89 and Day 88.
Today’s image is of a stainless steel dinner knife, unearthed a few years ago in the topsoil overburden of an archaeological excavation in Ramsgate. When it was discovered a few years ago, Margate’s regeneration was in its infancy and the Dreamland theme park on Margate’s sea front was just a faded and fire damaged memory of the past.
For many years it has migrated around our store, finding refuge in the oubliettes that hold the collection of objects from sites that are on the margins of being archaeological. It has languished in desk top pen holders and among the plastic toy characters and other objects that couldn’t escape the magpie tendencies of archaeologists.
The knife was unremarkable except for the stamped inscription on the blade which reads “Dreamland Margate Ltd.” O.S’, Guaranteed Stainless.
Times change and our attention has begun to focus on things that have been lost and we try to find ways to bring back a sense of their value. Margate’s arts scene is having its moment in the spotlight, Vintage is the new Zeitgeist and Dreamland is returning to the Sea Front.
We are now interested in the minutiae of the recent past and suddenly our knife, which carries the memory of Margate’s former glories wakes from its slumber to become an object of interest: memorabilia, Vintage curio, exhibit?
Today’s image is a reconstruction of a Roman Rotary quern. The quern stones were found on two separate sites, one from Broadstairs (bottom) and one from St. Nicholas at Wade (top).
The base has a socket in the centre for a spindle to hold the two sections together. The top stone has a hole for a handle to allow the quern to be rotated backwards and forwards and a hole shaped to form a hopper where grain is poured in. The grain then passes between the grinding surfaces of the upper and lower stones, crushing them into meal or flour.
Today’s image shows a sherd of Roman samian pottery excavated from a small site near Bleak House, Broadstairs in 2009. This was one of 81 sherds of samian pottery recovered on the site representing 33 different vessels.
The piece shown is one of 11 from the same highly decorated bowl (a Dragendorf form 37) from Central Gaul, dated between 100-130 AD. The decoration is arranged in panels divided by bead borders under an ovolo (egg shaped) border that surrounds the whole bowl.
The images on the vessel show part of a figure of the war god Mars and in a second panel in the upper half of a medallion, a nude pigmy warrior.
These motifs on samian bowls are common to Central Gaul where this bowl was manufactured.
Today’s image for Day 91 of VM_365 is a reminder that Thanet’s past extends long into the prehistoric period. Our archaeological record has some of the most interesting and important evidence of the earliest periods of human settlement.
There is evidence from Thanet from the period of the earliest of our human ancestors, and from the first hunter gatherers who ranged over the landscape after the last Ice Age hundreds of thousands of years later.
There have been archaeological finds from all the periods recognised by prehistorians, from those Mesolithic hunters thorough the Neolithic, Beaker, Bronze Age and Iron Age.
Six thousand years of our human story are represented only by archaeological finds and sites and some of the most important have been discovered on the Isle of Thanet. Prehistory is now part of the school curriculum and it should be in the mind of anyone interested in the long story of the Isle of Thanet.
Our 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.
Our image today for VM_365 Day 96 is of another of the enamelled copper alloy brooches that were found at the excavations of the Roman Villa at Abbey Farm, Minster. Enamelled brooches like this were made in the later 2nd century AD.
Our post today for