East Kent Access: Britain’s biggest dig in 2010
Britain’s biggest dig in 2010
by Phil Andrews (Oxford Wessex Archaeology) and Simon Mason (Kent County Council)
An important new road link, the East Kent Access Phase 2, is being built by Kent County Council to the south of Manston Airport. Construction of the new road is now well underway on what was the site of Britain’s biggest archaeological excavation in 2010. For over a year, up to 150 archaeologists from Oxford Wessex Archaeology (OWA) have been investigating one of the richest archaeological landscapes in the country.
This article presents some of the highlights of the prehistoric archaeology, with the principal Roman, Saxon and medieval discoveries being the subject of a further article in the next newsletter.
The road is being built on the southern slopes of Thanet, extending from the Ebbsfleet Peninsula in the mouth of the former Wantsum Channel up the scarp slope to the high ridge at Manston Airport. Readers of this newsletter will be very familiar with the vast wealth of archaeology that the former Isle of Thanet holds. East Kent has long been recognised as a gateway to the country for new peoples, cultures, ideas and trade. Thanet, sited on the east side of the Wantsum Channel - an important harbour and navigational route - was particularly well located to receive this influx. The landscape in which the road is being built is associated with some of the great events and traditions of British history: Claudius’ invasion in AD43 at nearby Richborough, the tradition of the arrival in AD449 of Hengist and Horsa at Ebbsfleet and in AD597 the arrival of St Augustine and his Christian mission. The building of the road offered an unparalleled opportunity to explore the background to this historically important area, uncovering the lives and customs of the peoples who dwelt there.
At its planning stage, it became clear that the road could not be built without affecting important archaeology and this was likely to occur over much of its route. In total over 6km of the road length was stripped for archaeology, (Section shown in front cover aerial photo) following a preliminary programme of field walking, test pitting, metal detecting and evaluation trenching.
The challenge was considerable; the road builders, VolkerFitzpatrick Hochtief needed to complete their main earthmoving by the end of the summer. This meant that that the archaeology had to be promptly dealt with beforehand, often in very poor
weather conditions. To achieve this OWA had to approach the excavation in an innovative manner, ensuring that all the archaeology was rapidly mapped, finds and environmental samples processed, dated and assessed during the fieldwork and the results entered into a computer Geographic Information System. This enabled the archaeologists to understand the results of their work as it progressed and ensured that appropriate sampling decisions were taken.
An important part of the archaeology work was to make sure that the local community had the opportunity to see and learn about, and if they wanted to, participate in, the archaeological works. An extensive outreach programme was put in place which included road shows (Fig 1), school visits, talks, open days, volunteering opportunities on an area set aside for a community excavation and finds processing and a dedicated web site (eastkent.owarch.co.uk). Thousands of people came into contact with the project during the fieldwork.
The discoveries have been every bit as exciting as had been anticipated. The earliest discoveries were a couple of stray Mesolithic tranchet axes found in later features and the remains of a Mesolithic flint working area, the debris deposited in the hollow left by a fallen tree. Such remains are rare on Thanet. Neolithic and Bronze Age remains on the scheme were plentiful, though the absence of Beaker burials was surprising given the number that have been found on Thanet. Neolithic pits were found on a number of the sites, including a particularly large cluster of over twenty on high ground overlooking Cliffsend. Aerial photography and previous excavations on Thanet have shown that the landscape was one rich in Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds and other monuments. Due to millennia of ploughing, none of these now survive as upstanding earthworks, but the associated, now infilled encircling ditches, are often visible as cropmarks.
Over the length of the road twelve ring ditches were discovered in varying topographical locations. Many were sited on the high ridges or slopes overlooking the Wantsum Channel, others were sited in lower lying locations. They varied greatly in size, from the smallest at around 4m diameter to the largest over 40m across, with ditches up to 2m deep. Some of the ring ditches appeared to be small henge-like monuments in their original form and are likely to be of Neolithic date. These were penannular ditches with external banks which probably acted as enclosures for ritual activity. Some were later transformed into Bronze Age funerary monuments and burials were found in a number of them. One in particular contained a rich assemblage which included an amber object and a unique triple food vessel (Fig 2).
Later Bronze Age activity was mainly focused on the Ebbsfleet peninsula and on the adjacent slopes of Cottington Hill. The remains of settlement including post-built structures, enclosures and trackways were found during the work. A particularly fine discovery, found on the Ebbsfleet peninsula, was two gold bracelets dating to around 800 - 700BC (front cover). The bracelets were unfortunately not found in archaeological features as the area in which they were discovered had been landscaped in the early 1990s when a waste water treatment works was constructed. It is very likely, however, that they are related to the several Late Bronze Age metalwork hoards that have been previously discovered on the same site; another of these was found during the current work.
The Iron Age was perhaps the best represented period on the scheme and remains of this date were found across the entire route. The vestiges of settlement, enclosures, field systems, and trackways were widespread throughout the landscape.
One of the most notable and intriguing sites, dating to the earlier centuries of the Iron Age, was found on a high promontory overlooking Pegwell Bay in Cliffsend. Here a large, trapezoidal enclosure, (front cover inset) with broad, deep ditches (Fig 3) appears to focus on a former henge monument, the ditches of which must still have been clearly visible at the time. Within the enclosed area were the remains of a large sunken featured building (visible in front cover inset), one of the best examples of this date yet found and a type of prehistoric structure that appears unique to Thanet. Other features lay outside the enclosure and included a substantial palisade, post-built structures, rubbish pits, granary pits and complexes of quarry pits. A number of burials were excavated, including one with a shale bracelet (Fig 4) and another of a horse (Fig 5).
Another important site, a Romano-British village with Iron Age origins, lay at the neck of the Ebbsfleet Peninsula, but this will be covered in the next newsletter.