Publisher's Synopsis
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.
