KAS Committee Round-Up

EDUCATION COMMITTEE

Members of the Education Committee have been busy. Material relating to Kent Thie Maps has been added to the Society's research website, with more to follow. Canterbury Archaeological Trust is in partnership with Christ Church University College on a new IT project for Kent schools and young members of North Downs YAC have been out and about including making a visit to Wye led by the Committee’s chairman, local resident Ian Coulson. A number of other educational projects are on-going or in the process of discussion, including planning for a new Archaeology Resource Centre for Kent. The Committee agreed a proposal of £5000 towards CAT's current education work and £3000 was granted towards the activities of North Downs YAC. The Education Committee was represented at the Society's History & Archaeology Show held at Maidstone Museum in June, where visitors enjoyed hearing about recent involvement with Maidstone's school children and other educational work supported by the Society.

Marion Green (Sec)

FIELDWORK COMMITTEE

Archaeological Assistance for Detectorists

Plans are in progress to form a county-wide archaeological advisory service for detectorists. It is proposed that the county be divided into areas, with each area having a designated person(s) to advise detectorists, each advisor issuing a contact phone number.

Excavation

Ringlemere: leading from a survey of this site, at least 10 ring-ditch barrows are within the close vicinity of the gold cup find spot. This year's season of excavation, led by Keith Parfitt of Canterbury Archaeological Trust, began on Saturday 31 July.

Litus, Manor Farm, Sheldwich: further to detectorist work at this site, trial trenching and a resistivity survey have been undertaken. Roman tile, 2nd century pottery and painted plaster were recovered.

A site at Thurnham: leading from detectorist finds from a possible high status grave(s), Andrew Richardson has carried out an excavation at the site. Further details appear on pages 14 & 15 of the newsletter.

Abbey Farm, Minster: for this season (the eighth), Building 6 and a late Roman feature at the centre of the complex have been excavated. A resistivity survey carried out by Brian and Carole McNaughton revealed a circular feature, of about 10m diameter, at the north end of the field. Results of the trial trench across this feature appear on page 2. The resistivity survey of the whole field is now complete.

David Brenchus

PLACE NAMES COMMITTEE

Day Conference on 17 July

Nearly 100 people came to hear Dr Parsons of the Institute for Name-Studies, University of Nottingham, and Dr Cullen, also from the Institute, and the Committee’s Academic Advisor, give four lectures on place-names.

Using 8 examples, Dr Parsons illustrated the various languages and combinations of languages from which our place-names derive, including one or two definite unknowns. He pointed out how spare are the texts in the earlier languages, so that probable forms marked with * and * are shown, being as solidly valid as the state of the material can reach.

Dr Cullen had recently been filmed for ITV Meridian. He was indignant at his billing as the 'archaeologist who needed to discover a life apart from place-names', but he had splendid slides of wet places and hilly places to illustrate his talk. He mentioned nailbourne, streams which flow intermittently, and their alternative name of Watter of Woe, an all-bourne. He talked of Woden and the heavens opened, thunder roared, lightning cracked and the crowd faltered - but happily recovered. We had over half an inch of rain. Those who had left their lunches in the station car park decided that biscuits were filling enough.

After lunch Dr Parsons, using staples in his campfire (nice touch), showed how the EPNS gathers early examples of each place name to tease out its meaning from the spelling. He talked of soon-to-be-put-in place opportunities for Digital Place-names and Distance Learning and of the Key to English Place Names at www.nottingham.ac.uk/english/ins/epns/kintro.html. Soon, when a full licence has been negotiated, the latter will cover England with one licence only. It shows Nottinghamshire, from late autumn he intends Kent to replace Nottingham as the active exemplar.

The final talk by Dr Cullen was on Staplehurst as places round about. He spoke of Anglo-Saxon nicknames such as 'of' and 'Blidda', whose owners probably flooded Offord and Bleldreda, and more enthusiastically of the Slay Brook, NW of Saltwood, where they had spent Friday looking for Cary or Slay (wild sage), and found none. Better botanists might though, as its distribution map shows it closes by, he ended up with staples, emphatically not markers but pillars or poles, erected at boundaries or forts. One illustration showed an Anglo-Saxon carved stone. Staplehurst's which marked the Marden/Cranbrook hundred boundary where it crossed the Roman road, would have been a workway woodpost.

Pat Harlow, who acted as Chairman, thanked the speakers, the lunch, the washers-up and the audience. It was a very enjoyable day.

Anita Thompson