Digging at the Gateway: Archaeological landscapes of south Thanet

East Kent has been a gateway for new people, cultures, ideas and trade for thousands of

years. The Isle of Thanet, now joined to the mainland following the silting and reclamation

of the former Wantsum Channel, was at the forefront of these movements.

A Kent County Council programme to build a new road link, the East Kent Access, in

the south-east part of Thanet resulted in the largest archaeological project carried out in

Britain in 2010. An Oxford Wessex Archaeology joint venture undertook the excavation

of 48 hectares along the 6.5 kilometre route, revealing a wealth of archaeological evidence

spanning the Palaeolithic to the Second World War.

Volume 2 presents the analysis of the finds, environmental remains and the extensive

radiocarbon dating programme, and includes the largest published assemblage of unburnt

and cremated human bone from Thanet. Amongst the finds the worked flint, the Iron Age

coins and the later prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon metalwork are of particular

interest, and there are important assemblages of prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon

pottery, worked stone and fired clay. Highlights from the environmental remains include

the large assemblages of animal bone and charred plant remains and the unique evidence

for Anglo-Saxon shellfish processing.