Back to East Cliff - and yet more finds!

KAS Bursary helps student

A report by Kate Holtham-Oakley on her participation at the East Wear Bay, Folkestone, excavations 2015, assisted by the KAS Fieldwork Committee. The bursary arose as a consequence of the successful Inaugural KAS Archaeology Conference in December 2014 hosted by the University of Kent, following which a bursary was made available to a University of Kent student.

Kate writes “Going back to the site on the East Cliff last summer was an amazing opportunity which I was never sure I would have again. Although I had been on numerous digs before, when I joined the A Town Unearthed project (ATU 2010-11).

It was the first time I had been in charge of the finds processing. This was thanks to Andrew Richardson (who I suspect didn’t really realise what a huge job it would turn out to be!).

In 2015, following on from the ATU discoveries, we knew there would be multiple finds - and we were not wrong. I was very much welcomed back into my role, and the skills and experience I had gained in the previous years proved invaluable. However, in contrast to ATU the majority of finds and features were Iron Age, not Roman. Features included a roundhouse, possible pit, ditches, floors and the only confirmed quernstone manufacturing site of the period in Britain, with much production debris.

We are still working on the finds: animal bones, pottery, metalwork, fossils (!), glass, brooches, coins, beads and so on. People came from far and near to visit, dig, photograph, metal detect and pot wash, both experienced and new to the dusty, exciting, world of archaeology. With, in my case, many thanks to the KAS!”