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.