The Abbey Farm Training Excavation, Bulletin 2, 1997
Following the success of the training excavation in 1996, and with the kind permission of farmer Mr. Jack Clifton, a second training excavation was held at Abbey Farm between the 2nd and 15th of August, 1997. Due perhaps to better pre-publicity, all places were taken up, with thirty-five trainees enrolling for either one or two six-day sessions. The age range of the trainees was between seventeen and sixty-six years, and most, 92%, hailed from Kent or the Greater London area, although one young at heart digger had made his way from San Francisco. The trainees were given instruction in basic excavation techniques, surveying, leveling and planning, and the drawing and interpretation of sections etc. They were able to attend four evening lectures on aspects of East Kent archaeology, and had the opportunity to see a play put on in the village hall, Sheriffs 'The Long Sunset' set in a fifth-century villa on the Wantsum shore.
Experienced volunteer workers from Thanet Archaeological Society and the Deal - Dover Group also participated in the excavation, helping to ensure that the training program and the planned Phase 2 excavation objectives were both met and came about in accord. Thanks are due to Minster Parish Council and Minster Agricultural Museum staff for their kind cooperation, and the facilities they provided, including a cafeteria and toilets adjacent to the site. Luxury indeed compared to most digs!
Excavations
For the 1997 excavation, two areas of the site were cleared of topsoil by machine stripping. The first of these exposed the western half of the main range of Building 1, and part of its west wing, revealing chalk foundations for Rooms 12 to 18, see illustration. Rooms 10 and 11 from 1996 were re-excavated for further research, and to confirm the relationship of the 1997 foundations to the original datum. A second area of topsoil removed exposed the floor with tiled sluices discovered by trenching in 1996, and revealed this to be a rectangular building (Building 2) abutting an alternatively buttressed chalk foundation that could be traced for more than 20 m. The latter is tentatively interpreted as the foundation of a boundary wall, with Building 2, a latrine, attached on the outside.
Pre-Roman archaeology
Prehistoric and Belgic horizons and features were encountered on site in 1996, and more discoveries were made in Phase 2. Worked flints and small pot sherds in a Neolithic or Early Bronze Age fabric were found in the area of Rooms 12 - 14 of the villa, presumably as residual materials re-deposited during Roman construction work. A length of ditch cut into undisturbed Thanet Beds sand was observed in Rooms 12 and 15, where its fill yielded clear evidence of on-site flint knapping. Evidence of Belgic occupation took the form of a shallow pit close to Building 2, containing midden materials and large sherds from two storage jars.
Roman Archaeology, Building 1, the Villa
As had been anticipated, parts of the west wing had suffered less plough damage than the east wing remains, with occupation and demolition horizons preserved in places. Sections cut to the west and south of the Room 18 outer wall chalk foundation disclosed the presence of the deep-sunk floors and surviving walls of Rooms 19, 20 and 21. Subsequent to the discovery of Rooms 20 and 21, a re-examination of the cropmark aerial photograph suggests the true width of the west wing may be double that of the east wing.
With about two-thirds of the Abbey Farm villa excavated, many questions remain unanswered, not least construction and demolition dates. Finds of window glass, mosaic fragments, and painted wall plaster continue to reinforce the impression of a high-status building. The discovery of well-preserved remains extending from the west wing seems to hold great promise. A Phase 3 training excavation is possible in 1998, the farmer Mr. Clifton having offered a between crops excavation window.
D. R. J. Perkins
