Today’s VM_365 image for Day 180 shows a worn Middle Iron Age clay loomweight from Northdown, Margate excavated in the 1970’s.
This loom weight shows evidence of heavy use wear from where it was suspended from a warp weighted loom which has created a groove in its surface. Other different types of Iron Age loomweights have been found at Broadstairs and North Foreland.
The image for VM_365 Day 170 is of the reconstructed profile of a Late Iron Age jar with a beaded rim and combed surface decoration. This pot was found broken into many pieces in the lower fill deposits at the base of a storage pit, during an excavation on the site of Margate Football club in 2003.
The vessel is made from a grog tempered fabric, meaning that crushed pot has been used as a filler to stiffen the clay in the body of the vessel. Pots of this type were common in the later Iron Age period 50BC to 25AD.
Vessels with these characteristics are often classed as ‘Belgic’, after Julius Caeser’s assertion that the Iron Age tribes of southern Britain, including Kent, were related to the tribes of Belgae, who lived around the northern coast of Gaul between the west bank of the Rhine to the Channel
The comb decoration has only been applied to the upper section of pot. The area below the rim was decorated with a circuit of horizontal combed lines, then the shoulders and sides of the pot were covered using a series of arching strokes from just below the horizontal line toward the middle and lower part of the vessel.
The comb decoration was common in the Late Iron Age period and there are several variations represented in the application of the decoration among the vessels found in Thanet.
The image for VM_365 Day 169 shows a series of pottery sherds from Iron Age kitchen/storage-ware vessels from Margate, which have deliberately applied clay coarsening on the surface. The general currency of coarsewares of this type was the Early to Mid Iron Age period, between c.600 and 350 BC.
Some of the bodysherds show how the appearance of different methods of surface treatment; wet clay slurried; ‘pebble-dashed’ tacky; lumpy, sometimes produce almost bizarre surface effects on the vessels.
Some of the sherds show how the rustication tended mostly to be applied below the shoulder, although as one of the examples shows it is not always the case.
It has been suggested, with some reference to the contrast of application of coloured finishes to contemporary Halstatt/La Tene art styles, that the very evident tonal variation of the vessel finishes, the smooth and the coarse elements of the pattern, had some meaning for the maker. With the rusticated coarsewares of this type it has been suggested that the difference in visual tone represents a smooth sky or heaven above the rough lumpy surface of the earth below.
Maybe it is simply a practical innovation, without such embedded symbolism, simply making an easy-grip surface for greasy fingers on large heavy pots.
Today’s image for VM_365 Day 163 shows some examples of a characteristic of pottery from the Early to Mid Iron Age period, dating around c.600-500 BC. This earliest phase of Early to Mid Iron Age pottery is epitomised by fineware bowls that have complex, moulded shoulders. The vessel form was based on examples that were coming in to Britain from North East France and other areas of the continent.
A fairly complete example of a vessel with this characteristic shape from Fort Hill Margate is shown at the top of the image. The four sherds below are from a series of other vessels showing variations of forms with the characteristic moulded shoulder that is typical of this period.
Vessels with this distinctive shape would not be easy to make, requiring careful and firm moulding at the shoulder junction. The pots frequently break at this point because the pieces of clay that make up the vessel’s body, formed of coils or slabs, are sometimes poorly joined together.
The bowl and sherds shown in the VM_365 image show how small, but very characteristic pottery sherds and fragments can be used to identify the potting traditions form a specific period that are represented among the many sherds that may be present among the finds recovered from an excavated feature, or in the assemblage of pottery from a site.
The VM is grateful to Nigel Macpherson Grant for the images and information for today’s post.
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 Day 148 VM_365 image shows part of a medieval jug excavated from a pit at East Northdown, Margate in 2003.
The upper part of this later 14th century globular bodied jug was found in 17 pieces within the fill of a pit, much of it is missing, including part of the handle, but enough was present to reconstruct the upper part of its profile. The jug was manufactured in Canterbury and is made of Canterbury Tyler Hill sandyware with a date range of c.1350-1400/1425 AD.
Following on from Day 110 and Day 114’s Iron Age woollen cloth making theme, today’s image is of a fired clay Iron Age Loom weight found at Northdown, Margate during excavations in 1971.
Simple warp weighted looms designed to stand against the wall were commonly used to weave cloth during this period. The loom weights, such as the one shown above, were tied to the bottom of the warp (vertical) threads to add tension whilst the cloth was being woven.
Today’s image is part of an Iron Age shale bracelet found during an archaeological evaluation at Hartsdown, Margate in 1995. The bracelet was found in a storage pit that had been filled with rubbish when it was no longer needed.
The bracelet is carved from Kimmeridge shale with ground faces on the front and back, the inner and outer surfaces are unpolished.
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 VM_365 image is of a collection of whole vessels and large sherds made from a disticnctive type of Roman pottery called samian ware.
This selection comes from the archive of the excavation carried out at Drapers Mills near Margate between 1959 and 1961 by Mr Joe Coy. The site is known to have been the location of a major Roman building, probably a Villa, which has produced many interesting finds such as the boxer’s head shown in an earlier post.
Over the years the Trust for Thanet Archaeology has acquired the archives of several early excavations carried out by some of the pioneering archaeologists in Thanet. Although we have been supported with donations from our wish list and with funding for storage material, we have limited resources to do everything we might to understand and examine in detail all the material we have in storage.
When we are able to open up and examine the contents of a box, it can reveal hidden treasures like this group of samian vessels and sherds. Samian was a high status product, manufactured in very large quantities from the early 1st century to the mid 3rd century AD. Samian producing kilns were located in southern and northern France and later in southern and eastern Germany, which were part of the province of Gaul.
Now this important group of material has been rediscovered, it can be examined and dated using up to date knowledge of the production centres and manufacturers. As more is learned from the material archives, the real significance of the Roman sites we have identified in the map of Roman Thanet becomes clearer.
The pottery in this image was discussed in greater detail by Dr. Steve Willis, a specialist in samian ware, on Day 345 of the VM_365 project. An interesting observation on the parallels between the origins of some of the pottery and the box the material was stored was discussed on on Day_346.