KE N TA RC H A E O LO G I C A LS O C I E T Y newnewIssue number 64ss ll ee tt tt ee Springrr 2005 Inside 2-3 Cliffs End CL I F F SEND Library Notes 4-5 Gordon Ward Funds &Grants 6-7 Lectures, Courses, Conferences & Events CO N U N D R U M 8-9 ver the last six months Wessex discoveries on the site have shed new Age (c.1800 BC). At this time a number of Notice Board Archaeology have excavated a fas- light on Bronze Age burial practices and impressive barrows were erected on the 10-11 cinating Bronze Age and Anglo- provided the archaeologists with a few site, focused on the brow of a hill or ridge New Books Saxon site for Millwood Designer puzzles to chew over. extending as a peninsular into the mouth Resistivity Meter Homes in advance of their new housing The earliest remains on the site 12-13 development in Cliffs End, Thanet. The appear to belong to the Early Bronze continued on page 2 Letters to the Editor Saxon Shore Ringlemere 14-15 Concealed Garments 16 Recording Kent STOP PRESS Your AGM information (and Annual Report) is inside - we hope to see you there. www.kentarchaeology.org.uk Spring 2005 1 continued from page 1 the individual appears to have been Saxon community established an inhuma- thrown face down into a relatively shal- tion cemetery on the brow of the hill, of the former Wantsum Sea Channel. The low sloping scoop with hands tied at the close to and respecting the Early Bronze barrows, some of which were surrounded wrists across the chest (below). Another Age barrows, which must have remained by two or three ring ditches, appeared to was buried with their lower arms miss- a prominent feature in the landscape have central burials although no skeletal ing. A possible ‘family’ group of four some 2500 years after their construction. material survived. Two of the burial pits adults and one juvenile were buried in a At the centre of the cemetery, which com- contained post-holes, suggesting the discrete pit within the quarry. One of the prised at least 12 graves, was the burial CLIFFS END, presence of a burial chamber, a rare dis- group, an elderly male, was buried hold- of a woman, suggested by the discovery RAMSGATE c o v e ry, while one grave contained a ing a piece of chalk to his mouth in his left of a necklace of polychrome glass beads CLIFFS END, cache of over one hundred flint tools. These tools appear to have been buried in RAMSGATE two bags and have been described by CLIFFSEND, Wessex Archaeology’s Phil Harding as RAMSGATE falling within the ‘Premier League’ of rich early Bronze Age burials in Britain. CLIFFSEND, While the barrows alone are an RAMSGATE important and fascinating discovery, it is CLIFFSEND, the Late Bronze Age (c.1000 BC) discover- ies which have fired the imagination of RAMSGATE the archaeologists. At that time, while CLIFFSEND, the barrows were still an important part RAMSGATE of the landscape, the focus of activity appears to have moved to the lower east- CLIFFSEND, ern slope of the hill. There, two large RAMSGATE ‘midden pits’, two large horseshoe CLIFFSEND, shaped enclosures, and towards the very bottom of the slope, a substantial brick- RAMSGATE earth quarry subsequently re-used as a CLIFFSEND, burial ground, were discovered. RAMSGATE One of the horseshoe-shaped enclo- sures surrounded a concentration of pits CLIFFS END, and post-holes (yet to be fully interpreted) RAMSGATE and may have acted as a focus for Late CLIFFS END, Bronze Age ceremonial activities. This ‘midden pit’, so named for want of a bet- RAMSGATE ter description, contained a huge assem- CLIFFS END, blage of Late Bronze Age finds, possibly RAMSGATE the largest found so far in Kent, which included pottery, quern stone fragments, CLIFFS END, bronze ingots, animal bone and occasion- RAMSGATE al fragments of human bone. Within its CLIFFSEND, layers, a buried soil horizon suggests, that for a time at least, the slumped fills RAMSGATE were covered in vegetation before being CLIFFSEND, sealed by a hillwash deposit. While there hand, whilst his right arm was out- and a small knife. Surrounding her were a RAMSGATE are a few rare parallels for such a feature stretched with his index finger pointing in number of male ‘warrior’ burials fur- elsewhere in Britain, the Cliffs End find- the direction of the barrows on the hill nished with shields, spears and swords. CLIFFSEND, ings are believed to be the first in Kent. (front page). On the eastern slope of the hill a RAMSGATE The most important findings on the Radiocarbon dating of one of the series of Anglo-Saxon pits were excavat- CLIFFSEND, site were the Late Bronze Age quarry pits. skulls indicates that the burials took ed. The majority of the pits each con- Initial assessment of the quality of the place at around 1000BC. This discovery tained a slab of burnt sandstone in their RAMSGATE brickearth from the quarry suggests that has very important implications for our lower fill and considerable quantities of CLIFFSEND, the material is unlikely to have been used understanding of Late Bronze Age funer- shellfish in their upper fills. All the pits RAMSGATE for the making of pottery, rather it would ary practices, as the general rite at this had been deliberately backfilled in the have more likely been used in the con- time was cremation burial. The discovery same manner and clearly had some con- CLIFFSEND, struction of daub walls for Bronze Age has raised many questions: Why was this nection with a ceremonial or feasting RA round houses. The evidence of buried group selected for inhumation burial? Did activity. A known practice is to pre-heat a soils within the fills of the quarry sug- they meet traumatic deaths as part of the stone in an open fire and slowly cook the gests that it was probably not open for Late Bronze Age funerary rite? Why was shellfish on the heated stones. more than a period of one hundred years one burial apparently chewing a piece of Altogether the site has provided a and possibly only a matter of decades. chalk … could he perhaps be the quarry- series of remarkable discoveries which Within the hollows of the quarry pits, man? Hopefully some of these questions will be discussed in the archaeological no less than 14 inhumations have been will be answered in the forthcoming post text books for years to come. recorded and lifted. The majority appear excavation works. to be female burials, some of which may In the late 6th century AD, as is seen Richard Greatorex, reflect a traumatic death. In one burial on a number of sites in Kent, an Anglo- Wessex Archaeology Spring 2005 2 Society Vol. IV 2004. ‘Copperas’. Canterbury Archaeological Trust Occasional Paper LI B R A RY NOTES No. 2. Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History Vol. XL p.4. 2004. Place Names of Leicestershire. EPNS Vol. LXXXI. ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY Britannia Vol. XXXV. 2004. Journal of Roman Studies. Vol. XCIV. 2004. SEPTEMBER 04 TO JANUARY 05 Archaeometry Vol. 46 p.4. 2004. LIBRARYNOTES Medieval Archaeology Vol. XLVIII 2004. LIBRARY NOTES Archaeology International 2003/4. Institute of Archaeology. Cornish Archaeology 2000/1. Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 76 2004. Society of Antiquaries Journal Vol. 84. 2004. LIBRARYNOTES Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Proceedings No. 133 2003. Review of National Monuments and Records Part 1. English LIBRARYNOTES Monumental Brass Society Bulletin No. 97 Sept. 2004. Heritage. LIBRARY NOTES Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Soc. Proceedings 3 Romnean Papers; ‘A Smashing Time’, ‘The Kings Evil’, ‘The Vol. 147 2003. Ship Fresco’. LIBRARYNOTES Cambridge Archaeological Soc. Vol. XCII 2004. L e i c e s t e r s h i re Archaeological and Historical Society LIBRARYNOTES John Kirby’s Suffolk, His Maps and Roadbooks. Suffolk Records Transactions Vol. 78. 2004. LIBRARY NOTES Soc. Nomina. Vol. 27. 2004. Bygone Kent. Vol. 25, Nos. 9, 10, 11, 12. Vol. 26 No. 1. Post-medieval Archaeology Vol. 38 p.2. LIBRARYNOTES Kent Family History. Vol. 10 No. 12. Societe Jervaise. Annual Bulletin 2004. LIBRARYNOTES Archaeometry Vol. 46 p.3. (Aug. 2004). Prehistoric Society Proceedings. Vol 70. 2004. LIBRARY NOTES Kent Settlement (Poor Law) Records p.1. East Kent (Canterbury Maidstone 1905/6. Pikes County Series. Diocese). Church Archaeology Vols. 5 and 6. LIBRARYNOTES Romano-British Religious Centre of Vagniacis, at Springhead Country to Suburb; Bexley Area Development 1800-1996. LIBRARYNOTES (Victor Smith). Archaeologia Aeliana Vol.XXXIII 2004. Newcastle upon Tyne. LIBRARY NOTES ‘Tracks and Traces’- Archaeology of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Archaeologia Cambrensis Vol. 150 2001 (2004). East Grinstead; Society Bulletin No. 83; Museum Bulletin No.15. Trier Zeitschrift 64 Jahrgang 2001. LIBRARYNOTES English Heritage London Region Archaeology Quarterly Review Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Vol. 132. LIBRARYNOTES (Winter 2004). Funde und Ausgrabungen im Bezirk Trier No. 34 and 35. 2002 LIBRARY NOTES ‘For All the Saints’. St. Michaels Church, Peckham, Parish and and 2003. People. LIBRARYNOTES ‘Ulcombe’s Story’ – Ulcombe History Society. LIBRARYNOTES Memories of the School of Horton Kirby. ARCHAEOLOGIA CANTIANA LIBRARY NOTES Parish Portrait; Memories of Willington, Otham and Langley. Stansted in Kent. LIBRARYNOTES ‘A year in depth’- 2002/2003 report, Hampshire and Wight Trust for The KAS has in store surplus copies of Archaeologia Cantiana LIBRARYNOTES Maritime Arch. of the following issues: LIBRARY NOTES Material Hefte Zur Archaologie im Baden-Wurttemburg. Heft 69. 88, 90, 94, 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 113, 114, 115, 116, 2004.