Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-sh8wx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-19T19:30:23.441Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Report on the Late Bronze Age Site excavated at Minnis Bay, Birchington, Kent, 1938–40

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Extract

The Isle of Thanet, no doubt on account of its proximity to the Continent, has during the flow of the centuries experienced its full share of the tide of human immigration and invasion. The Birchington district in particular appears to have been singled out for settlement in ancient times. Flints ranging in age from Palaeolithic to Neolithic have been recovered from various localities, whilst out on the Flats directly facing Minnis Headland, pottery of Roman, Jutish and Saxon character has been found. The most recent addition to the sequence is the considerable occupation area of Late Bronze Age date found by the late ‘Jimmy’ Beck opposite the Minnis Bay esplanade slipway some 210 yards from dry land. The exact position of the site is marked by a black dot on fig. 1. During the Late Bronze Age, no doubt, the present Minnis Bay Flats, scene of the excavations described in this paper, formed the floor of a seaward extension of the valley flanked on the one hand by the Minnis Headland and on the other by the Rifle Range land, both of which must have stretched considerably further out in the Thames Estuary than they do to-day. The fact that the site could only be excavated between tides, being covered by several feet at high water, imposed a severe limitation on the excavations described in this paper.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1943

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Dunn, S. T. (1905). Alien Flora of Britain, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jessen, K. (1933). ‘Planterester fra den aelderen Jernalder i Thy,’ Botanisk Tidskrift, 42, p. 257.Google Scholar
Hegi, G. (19061929). Illustrierte Flora von Mittel-Europa, Munchen.Google Scholar
Matthews, J. R. (1937). ‘Geographical relationships of the British Flora,’ J. Ecol., 25, p. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar