The image for Day 165 of the VM_365 project shows a reworked polished flint axe that was found in the primary ditch fill of a Beaker period barrow at North Foreland, Broadstairs in 2004.
This was originally a small polished axe that was reworked to make it usable after it broke at the butt end. The butt end was tapered to aid re-hafting and the cutting edge was re-sharpened.
Today’s image is of a sherd of Earliest Iron Age pottery with a bright red finish applied to its outer surface. Around 900 BC, in the earliest phase of the Iron Age, a new technique was adopted by potters where vessels were decorated by applying iron-oxide powder as a slip to the outer surfaces.
Like the finger tip decoration that was applied to bronze age on vessels that was shown on VM_365 Day 155, this technique is a skeuomorph, using the inspiration of one decorative form as a reference to create another decorative style. The process evolved with the deliberate intention of emulating the bright colour of freshly made and polished bronze vessels.
The technique was only applied on thin-walled fineware bowls, which were most ike the bronze models. The sherd shown in the image is from a bowl found at Minnis Bay, Birchington which can be dated broadly to around 900 to 600BC .
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 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 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.
Today’s image for Day 157 of VM_365 shows three views of an interesting square pottery vessel, which may have been used as a salt container.
The square pot is made of a thick, flint tempered fabric, fired to a dark brown to black colour. The flint tempering can be seen in section where parts of the wall of the container have broken. The container was found at the Iron Age coastal site at South Dumpton Down, Broadstairs where concentrations of post holes within a boundary enclosure seem to represent the focus of the settlements within the enclosure. The square vessel was found within the fill of one of the main groups of post holes.
The suggestion that this was a salt container was made by the ceramic specialist, Nigel Macpherson-Grant in his report on the pottery. Because it is essential to the biological functions of livestock, and a valuable method of preserving produce to extend its life, salt was a valuable commodity in the Iron Age period, as it was throughout history. Salt may have been extracted from the sea water near to the settlement.
Today’s VM_365 image is of an Iron Age bone pin excavated from a pit at Dumpton Gap, Broadstairs in 1994.
The pit had been used for the disposal of domestic refuse which included animal bone, quern stone fragments and sherds of pottery dating to the Early Iron Age before being used to bury a single adult individual in a similar way to the burial at North Foreland.
The bone pin, possibly used to fasten a cloak, was found at the left shoulder of the skeleton, fragments of an Iron buckle were found at the right shoulder.