Today’s VM_365 Day 168 image shows a late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age arrowhead from Cliffsend.
This barbed and tanged arrowhead had broken along one of the barbs and instead of being discarded, the edge was retouched so it could be reused.
Other examples of flint objects that have been reworked into a useable object following damaged were posted for Day 165 and Day 50.
The image for Day 162 of VM_365 is of another fine example of Early Bronze Age flint work from Thanet. This barbed and tanged arrowhead was found at Draper’s Mill, Margate in 1980, as a residual object recovered during the excavation of a Roman building.
This tiny object embodies all the skills of the Early Bronze Age flint knappers who could create such a well proportioned and symmetrical tool through the careful flaking of tiny chips from such a small piece of stone.
Other similar barbed and tanged arrowheads have featured in earlier VM_365 posts, arrow heads found with a burial close to QEQM Hospital featured in VM_365 Day 24 and an arrow head found in excavations at Lord of the Manor, Ramsgate was shown as VM_365 Day 141 .
Today’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.
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.
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.
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.
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 128’s image is a Middle Bronze Age Quoit headed pin found on a site near Dumpton Gap in 1994.
The Quoit headed pin is made of bronze and has an irregular surface. It would have been used to fasten a cloak or piece of clothing.
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.