Neolithic, Beaker and Anglo-Saxon Remains: Laundry Road, Minster in Thanet

NEOLITHIC, BEAKER AND ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS: LAUNDRY ROAD, MINSTER IN THANET EMMA BOAST AND ALEX GIBSON In March 1995, an archaeological evaluation was undertaken prior to development at Laundry Road, Minster by an excavation team from the Trust for Thanet Archaeology directed by D. R. J. Perkins. It was undertaken in order to investigate a cropmark plotted from aerial photographs of the site by the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments of England. The cropmark was visible within the central part of the proposed development site and consisted of an oval enclosure with internal features. Several east-west orientated inhumations were discovered and destroyed during building work on the western boundary of the Minster Laundry Industrial Estate immediately adjoining the site. 1 Other archaeological investigations close to the site revealed a cane bead and an iron knife of Anglo-Saxon type in 1984 during work on the Monkton-Ramsgate gas pipeline. 2 A scheduled ancient monunient (AM 262) consisting of a much larger cropmark occupies the field on the eastern side of Laundry Road approximately 250m from the present site. The crop mark is that of a sub-rectangular outer boundary surrounding a sub-rectangular interior boundary. North-west of the ancient monument are four ring ditch cropmarks, each having internal features. The Laundry Road site is located below the crest of the chalk downland escarpment forming the southern edge of the Thanet plateau at 􀂀pproximately 50m OD (Fig. 1). The natural geology exposed by trenching consisted of the following material (in ascending order): - Upper Chalk bedrock. - A layer of soft chalky material derived from Upper Chalk by periglacial action and similar to coombe rock, varying in thickness from 0.10-0.40m. This is penetrated by solution hollows and ice wedge clefts filled with red-brown sandy silt with flints. 359 EMMA BOAST AND ALEX GIBSON (J.􀀃 -----..JI ------ :s Fig. 1. The Laundry Road site location and cropmark. - An ancient subsoil horizon of red-brown sandy silt varying in thickness between 0.05-0.30m. - Approximately 0.30m of dark brown modern topsoil. A scatter of worked flint and debitage was discovered during field walking before evaluation trenching on the development area. The flint assemblage showed all stages of patination from blue-black to white. The ceramic sherds found by field walking were all of a late medieval and modern date. A metal detector survey of the site recovered only modern era materials. Four percent of the site was evaluated by trenching. Fifteen trenches, l .Sm wide, were excavated with a mechanical excavator (Fig. 2a). Trenches 4-15 measured 20m in length; trenches 1-3 were 96, 44 and 56m long respectively. The cruciform arrangement of trenches 1, 2 and 3 ensured that the targeted enclosure was covered by 360 NEOLITHIC, BEAKER AND ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS: MINSTER IN THANET the evaluation, compensating for possible error in plotting a feature on to a map from an aerial photograph. The twelve 20m trenches were distributed around the remainder of the site to give a representative evaluation of the required area. A metal detector was used to survey the exposed horizons within the excavated trenches and excavated spoil. The fills of ancient features cut into chalk revealed by the excavation were very similar in texture and colour to natural features present such as solution hollows. In order to fulfil the requirement of the evaluation specification that archaeological features should only be sampled sufficiently to characterise and date them it was decided that only those features that were obviously man-made would be investigated. No such features were observed in Trenches 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, I 1, 12, 13 and 14. In Trench 1 a small pit [F 100]; a pit or large posthole [F 102]; and two sections of ditch [F I 04 and 106] were identified (Fig. 2b ). Parts of a ditch were exposed in Trench 2 [F 108], Trench 3 [F I 16] and :rench 4 [F I I 0]. A pit, or rounded end of a ditch, was also observed in Trench 4 (F 112]. In Trench 7 a single bowl-shaped pit (F 1 14] was observed. An irregular shallow feature [F 118] and a grave [F 120] were identified in Trench 15 and, after clearing an area in order to excavate the burial further, two features that might also be graves were uncovered. The Neolithic remains and Beaker enclosure Two features within Trench 4 contained pottery dating to the Neolithic period. Feature 11 O was interpreted either as a pit or rounded terminal of a ditch. It measured 0.7m wide and 0.4m deep and extended to the edge of the trench. Feature 112 was also interpreted as a pit or rounded ditch terminal measuring 2m wide and 0.3m deep and c?ntained flint waste flakes and pig and cattle teeth in addition to a single rim sherd of pottery. No cropmarks were visible on the development site that would suggest that these features were ditches and it seems likely that they were isolated pits. It is possible that a bowlshaped pit fill containing flint waste flakes in Trench 4, context 100, may be associated with the Neolithic pits. No other contexts contained finds that could be firmly dated to the Neolithic period. The ditch sections encountered in Trenches 1, 2, and 3 [ 104, I 06, 108, 116] vary from a truncated V-shaped profile to that of an open U-section profile 1.5-2.5m wide and 0.5-lm deep. Pottery contained Within the fill of ditch section 104 dates to the Beaker period. Ditch section 108 contained a flint arrowhead in the Bronze Age Beaker 361 EMMA BOAST AND ALEX GIBSON a 􀀁 c:::::!:==::i ff Ji 6􀀂 "􀀂 c:: 1 3 􀀕 14 IS 0 JOOm. b 􀀁 t. F. JOO = F.110 F. 102 F.112 •::i F. 104 c:.... r::::::::==::i F.116 􀀂 F.106 o•-=::::::i•-==---==--===--===i1oom Fig. 2a. The evaluation trench layout at Laundry Road. Fig. 2b. Archaeological features numbered. 362 NEOLITHIC, BEAKER AND ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS: MINSTER IN THANET 2 3 Fig. 3. I) Tanged and Barbed flint arrowhead; 2) Bronze Suspension Ring; 3) Iron Knife. (3.1 and 3.2 at scale I: I; 3.3 at scale I :2) tradition (Fig. 3.1) while the remaining ditch sections contained animal bone and flint debitage. The ditches are interpreted as those of the enclosure plotted by the RCHME, although the original plot of the enclosure places it 30m south and 30m east of the excavated sections. By re-plotting the cropmark 30m north and west, it fitted well with the excavated ditch sections (Fig. 4) and places feature 114 inside the enclosure boundary, suggesting that the bowl-shaped pit is related to activity within the enclosure. Evidence of burning, large flints, flint debitage and an oyster shell within the pit fill are suggestive of the remains of a small hearth. No datable finds were found within the fill. Feature I 00 contained two waste flakes and may be associated with either phase of activity on the site . . The four sections of the enclosure ditch all indicate that they were filled slowly with a brown loam deposit. The lower one third to one 􀁜alf of the fill in each section contained chalk nodules and flints, and in Sections 108 and 116 tip-lines of nodules indicated that this material entered the ditch from the north and east probably from the collapsing enclosure banks. 363 EMMA BOAST AND ALEX GIBSON o --==--===--==--===--==::i !OOm. Fig. 4. The plotted position of the cropmark (stippled) compared with the actual position of ditch sections and the probable location of the enclosure (broken line). The Anglo-Saxon Burials A single east-west orientated burial in an oval grave cut [F 120] was uncovered at the eastern end of Trench 15 (Fig. 5). Ploughing had heavily damaged the grave. A maximum depth of 0.2m of the cut remained. The Anglo-Saxon date of the grave was confirmed by the excavation of the skeletal remains of a child probably less than five years old, orientated with the head to the west. Parts of the skull, ribs and an iron knife (Fig. 3.3) lay mixed at the centre of the grave with only the long bones of the legs lying in situ. The orientation of the grave [F 120] and the proximity to others of a similar period suggests an association with other Anglo-Saxon burials discovered nearby. Residual sherds from two Beaker vessels were found within the fill of the grave (see below). A second irregular, bowl-shaped cut pit [F 118] towards the western end of the trench was sectioned after a copper alloy ring was found in the feature with a metal detector (Fig. 3.2). The ring is similar in form and dimensions to the suspension rings of bronze-mounted 364 \ \ \.􀀗 -···-··········· ···· ., ...................................... .... . . ............................ .. o--=-=-=-=-- Im. 􀀝 ............ ..·.·.·•·.·.·.·•·.·•·•·•·•·.·.·•􀀗 􀀞 ...•............ ■ ••·····•• ■••··L ............................... ···-,·􀀘···... ·•nTl'1i• .........................................•...........•..•............................rn.... 􀀜:..:.:...:..:..:..:..:..:..:..:..:..:..:..:..:..: •......................................, ........................... ·=.=..=.=.=1 ··• . I J I J Fig. 5. The excavated Anglo-Saxon grave in Trench 15 and two features interpreted as graves (stippled). EMMA BOAST AND ALEX GIBSON wooden buckets that are sometimes found among the grave goods in Anglo-Saxon graves of approximately sixth-century date. The pit was shallow, measuring 0.1 m in depth and could represent a heavily plough-damaged grave. A further two features that might also be graves were observed on removal of overburden around the excavated burial [F 120]. These were not excavated. The Neolithic finds Laundry Road is the ninth site indicating Neolithic settlement activity found to date on Thanet. Seven of the other sites consist of isolated burials, pottery and flint scatters: - Nethercourt Farm, Ramsgate (Dunning J 966, 8); - Monkton-Manston (Perkins 1984); - Minnis Bay, Birchington (Macpherson Grant 1968, Perkins 2000 Vol. II, 54); - Late Neolithic Peterborough-type ware from Little Brooksend Farm;3 - an Early Neolithic bowl from the Manston Runway barrow (Perkins & Gibson 1990); - Early Neolithic pottery and a crouched burial from 1994 MonktonMount Pleasant A253 road-improvements (Bennett et al. 1996); - Late Neolithic grooved ware from small ceremonial enclosure at Lord of the Manor (Macpherson-Grant 1980). The eighth, a major site excavated in 1997 (ahead of a road development at Chalk Hill, Ramsgate), is a multi-ditched enclosure or 'causewayed camp' (Dyson, Shand and Stevens 2000, 470-72). A pit containing later Neolithic sherds had been excavated about 300m west of this enclosure in 1994 (Perkins et al. 1995, 261) and a flint assemblage has been obtained over many years from the grounds of Chilton Farm.4 All these discoveries in Thanet suggest that the causewayed camp existed within a larger Neolithic settlement complex, perhaps involving the long term occupation of the downland ridge. The Neolithic sites on Thanet represents about a quarter of those known within Kent. The recent excavation of a 'causewayed camp' on Sheppey (Dyson et al. 2000) and a possible long house of Continental type at White Horse Stone, Maidstone (Glass 1999; Oxford Archaeological Unit 2000) have made interesting additions to the total. To some extent, the lack of evidence for the Neolithic period in Kent reflects the typical circumstances of discovery and the limited nature of excavations. The identification of Neolithic sites is often the product of field walking and chance finds, or the discovery of isolated features encountered during evaluation and excavation of 366 NEOLITHIC, BEAKER AND ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS: MINSTER IN THANET sites of other periods. The three major sites at Sheppey, Ramsgate and Maidstone discovered recently have all been excavated in advance of large scale construction projects. A further limitation to finding sites is their often deep burial beneath colluvial soils (cf. White Horse Stone), as a result of agricultural and natural landsurface changes. The Early (Beaker) Bronze Age The presence of Beaker pottery within the ditched enclosure, and the residual Beaker sherds that were found within the Anglo-Saxon grave fills, is of regional significance if the pottery can be directly associated with the enclosure. Few settlement sites of the Early Bronze Age period have been recognised in the South-East. Thanet has two sites that are believed to be of this date; Laundry Road and the Oaklands Nursery site, Cliffsend (Perkins 1998). Until recently Holywell Coombe, Folkestone (Bennett 1988) and two less certain attributions, Broom- wood, St Paul's Cray (Parsons 1961) and Greenhill, Otford (Pyke 1980), were the only sites known in the rest of Kent. However, recent archaeological work on the Channel Tunnel route below the Downs at Folkestone has revealed 8 - I O settlement sites in a 4km stretch (pers. comm., Macpherson-Grant 2000). This brings the maximum total to twelve sites of the period in the County. The numerous chance finds of beaker pottery and burials suggests that this number does not represent the true extent of occupation in the Early Bronze Age period. Apart from the newly discovered sites discussed above there are thirty to forty Beaker settlement sites in Britain, mainly located in the North (Gibson 1995). With the exception of the CTRL sites, the settlement distribution in Kent seems to be concentrated on the coastal marshes and shores. This is supported by the programme of dyke monitoring carried out by the Dover Archaeological Group in the Lydden Valley alluvial plain (Halliwell & Parfitt 1985) and by the location of one of the two Thanet sites. The Laundry Road site, sit 􀂂ated on the downland escarpment, is an exception to this pattern. It IS possible that the Beaker sherds had been deposited on infill surfaces of earlier ditches. This raises the possibility that the enclosure may date to the Neolithic. The Anglo-Saxon features The presence of an Anglo-Saxon burial on the site was not un 􀂃xpected, as extended inhumations of unknown date were destroyed 1n construction work at the adjacent Laundry Road Business park in 367 EMMA BOAST AND ALEX GIBSON the 1970s. These burials therefore form part of a larger cemetery originally. It is possible that further burials still survive extending north-east and south-west from Trench 15. The known location pattern of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries on Thanet (on the false crests of south or south-west facing downland escarpments), nearby finds and aerial photographic evidence,5 all strongly support this conjecture. It is likely from the evidence of the grave goods and the orientation of burial, that the graves represent a pre-Christian community dating to the fifth and sixth centuries. It has been suggested that there must have been a cemetery serving a pre-Christian community at Minster. The burials at Laundry Road may form part of this cemetery (Hawkes 1984, 150). The Pottery by Dr Alex Gibson The pottery from Laundry Road, Minster, comprises a small Neolithic assemblage of four vessels and a similar amount of Beaker. The Neolithic bowls all appear to be from undecorated closed vessels, probably of early Neolithic date. They are in a similar fabric and, despite their fragmentary state, are likely to form a single assemblage. In rim form and fabric, they resemble the earlier Neolithic material from St Richard's Road, Deal (Gibson 1995, EN6) and the form of the rim of No. 2 recalls that from Mill Hill, Deal (Clarke l 982). Vessels numbers l-2 and possibly 3 come from closed bowls and a similar vessel was recovered from Minnis Bay, Birchington in Thanet (Macpherson-Grant 1968) and from Creteway Down, Folkestone (Dunning 1966) where the rim form of No. 3 can also be paralleled. The Beaker sherds represent two comb-decorated, one rusticated, and one incised vessel. All are represented by small sherds and are too fragmentary to allow reconstruction and an accurate estimate of placing within the stylistic sequences. All the material is abraded and appears to be residual, particularly nos. 5-7. No. 6 may be from an All Over Combed vessel such as those from Barham (Clarke, 1970, No. 385-6), Chislet (Clarke 1970, No. 394) or Erith (Clarke 1970, No. 398). The rim angle of No. 7 suggests a flaring neck of a vessel in Clarke's (1970) Late Southern tradition. The well-defined interrupted herringbone incision on No. 8 is a motif and technique rare in Kent but common in the Low Countries (van der Waals & Glasbergen 1955). A comparable sherd has been found, however, at Holywell Coombe, Folkestone (Gibson 1988, CTEF72). Neolithic I. F I I 2 Rim sherd from an apparently closed vessel (Fig. 6.1.1). The fabric is hard and well fired and contains moderate to finely crushed calcined flint. The fabric averages 10mm thick and the surfaces are brown with a grey core. The rim has an estimated diameter of 220mm and has a slightly bulbous profile. The sherd is undecorated. 368 2 F ·-·--- ,----, ' ' Fig. 6.1 : Laundry Road, Minster. Early Neolithic pottery. Scale I :2 EMMA BOAST AND ALEX GIBSON 2. F I JO Rim sherd from a small and apparently closed vessel (Fig. 6.1.3). The fabric is hard and well fired and contains moderate to finely crushed calcined flint. The fabric averages 5mm thick, the outer surface is blackbrown, the inner surface is dark brown and the core is grey. The rim has an estimated diameter of c. 125mm and has a slightly bulbous profile. The sherd is undecorated. 3. FI JO Rim sherd from a large vessel (Fig. 6.1.2). The fabric is hard and well fired and contains moderate to finely crushed calcined flint. The fabric averages 14mm thick, the surfaces are black and the core is grey. The rim diameter cannot be estimated from the small surviving sherd. The rim has a slight internal lip and there are traces of a circular perforation c. 14mm below the rim. This perforation has been made while the clay has still been plastic and appears to have been made from the outside. Otherwise, the sherd is undecorated. 4. FI JO Four body sherds from a vessel of unknown form. The fabric is hard and well fired and contains moderate to finely crushed calcined flint. The fabric averages 9mm thick, the outer surface is brown, the inner surface is grey-brown and the core is grey. The sherds are undecorated. Beaker 5. F/04 Base sherd with an estimated diameter of 100mm (Fig. 6.2.4). The fabric is well fired and contains finely crushed grog and sparse calcined flint. The fabric has also some small circular voids suggesting some organic inclusions. The outer surface is light brown and the core is grey. The inner surface is missing. Traces of three vertical lines of toothed comb impressions are visible. 6. FJ20 Wall sherd from the belly of a vessel with an estimated diameter of 120mm (Fig. 6.2.6). The fabric averages 8mm thick, is well fired and contains finely crushed grog and sparse sand. The outer surface of the sherd is grey-brown, the inner surface is brown and the core is grey. The outer surface carries traces of eleven closely spaced lines of fine-toothed comb impressions. 7. F/20 Simple rounded rim sherd from a vessel with an estimated diameter of 140mm (Fig. 6.2.7). The fabric is fine and averages 4mm thick, is quite soft and fragile and contains finely crushed grog. The surfaces of the sherd are grey-brown and the core is grey. The outer surface carries faint traces of roughly three vertical lines of fine fingernail impressions. 8. Fl04 Body sherd in a hard, well-fired fabric with a light brown outer surface, grey inner surface and core (Fig. 6.2.5). The fabric averages 5mm thick and contains finely crushed grog. The outer surface is decorated with a herringbone arrangement of short, evenly spaced incisions below two fine, horizontal incisions. Above this are traces of a further line of oblique incisions. 9. Fl02 Two conjoining sherds in a hard vitrified fabric there are traces of both internal and external surfaces and the internal one has a carination. The sherds may represent a crucible fragment. 370 NEOLITHIC. BEAKER AND ANGLO-SAXON REMAINS: MINSTER IN THANET 4 ''-I l􀀄_J ,f: ' \ 6 ,- \ , r--- Fig. 6.2: Laundry Road, Minster. Beaker pottery. Scale I :2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks are due to Nigel Macpherson-Grant for providing the illust 􀀷ations of the pottery and Ges Moody and Dave Perkins for assistance in the preparation of this paper. NOTES • 1 The Director of the Trust for Thanet Archaeology. Dave Perkins was called to the site by the police during construction of the Business Park after an allempt had been made to conceal the discovery of human skeletal material. Thanet Arch. Soc. archive. 2 These were found by a gas pipeline worker on the newly ploughed surface south of the 1984 gas pipeline route. 3 Finds made when Thanet Archaeological Trust members were invited to monitor geological research trenching over periglacial features. 4 These were finds made in the I 970-80s by Mr Jack Finch who ran a children's home at the Chilton Farm House. The flints are in the keeping of Thane I Archaeological Society. 5 Potato Marketing Board vertical aerial photos taken in the 1960s show cropmarks or small pennnnular ring ditches in the site area. These might be Saxon funerary barrows. 371 EMMA BOAST AND ALEX GIBSON REFERENCES Bennett, P., I 988, 'Archaeology and the Channel Tunnel', Archaeologia Cantiana, cvi, 5. Bennett, P. et al., 1996, 'Interim Report on Excavations in advance of dualling the A253 between Monkton and Minster', Archaeologia Cantiana, cxvi, 305. Clarke, A., l 982, 'The Neolithic in Kent: a Review' in Archaeology in Kent to AD I 500, ed. by P. E. Leach, CBA Research Report No. 48, London. Clarke, D. L., 1970, The Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland, Cambridge University Press. Dunning, G. C., 1966, 'Neolithic Occupation Sites in East Kent', Antiquaries Journal, 46, 1-25. Dyson, L., Shand, G. & Stevens, S., 2000, 'Causewayed Enclosures', Current Archaeology, 168, Vol. XIV, 12, 470. Gibson, A. M., 1988, Report on the Neolithic and Bronze Age Pottery from Excavations in Advance of the Channel Tunnel Construction. Report No. 10 prepared for the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. Gibson, A. M., 1995, The Neolithic Pottery from Cross Roads and St. Richard's Road, Deal, Kent. Report No. 21 prepared for the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. Glass, H. J ., 1999, 'Archaeology of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link', Archaeologia Cantiana, cxix, 189-220. Halliwell, S. & Parfitt, K., 1985, 'Prehistoric land use in the Lydden Valley', Kent Archaeological Review, No. 82, 39. Macpherson-Grant, N., l 968, 'Two Neolithic Bowls from Birchington, Thanet', Archaeologia Cantiana, lxxxiii, 249-50. Macpherson-Grant, N ., 1980, 'Interim Excavation Reports, Site IID', The Isle of Thane/ Archaeological Unit, 7. Oxford Archaeological Unit, 2000, 'White Horse Stone, A Neolithic Longhouse', Current Archaeology, 168, Vol. XIV, 12, 450. Parsons, J., 1961, 'Broom wood Bronze Age Settlement', Archaeologia Cantiana, lxxvi, 134. Perkins, D. & Gibson A., 1990, 'A Beaker Burial from Manston', Archaeologia Cantiana, cviii, l I. Perkins, D., Andrews, P. & Hearne, C., 1995, 'The Sandwich Bay Wastewater Treatment Scheme', Archaeologia Cantiana, cxv, 261. Perkins, D. & Hawkes, S. C., 1984, 'The Monkton Gas Pipeline', Arcliaeologia Cantiana, ci, 83-114. Perkins, D., 1998, 'Oaklands Nursery Site', Archaeologia Cantiana, cxviii, 355. Perkins, D., 2000, unpublished PhD thesis, University College, London. Pyke, J. A., 1980, 'Greenhill Bronze Age Site, Otford', Archaeologia Cantiana, xcvi, 321. Waals, J. D. van der & Glasbergen, W., 1955, 'Beaker types and their distribution in the Netherlands', Palaonhistnria, 45-46. 372