Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Hoard of 14 bronze palstaves in Early Iron Age bowl found in 1904 - a fragment of bronze spearhead found later.

Monument Types

• Hoard (Late Bronze Age to Late Iron Age - 1000 BC (at some time) to 42 AD (at some time))

Associated Finds

• AXEHEAD (Late Bronze Age - 1000 BC to 701 BC)
• SPEARHEAD (Late Bronze Age - 1000 BC to 701 BC)
• URN (Early Iron Age - 800 BC to 401 BC)

Full description

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[TR 30766866] Late Bronze Age Hoard (NAT) (1) Fourteen late Bronze Age palstaves (no two from the same mould) were found in an earthware bowl in 1904 in Southend Brickfield approx 700ft from the west corner of the Girls' National School and 510ft from the south-west corner of No. 1 Dedringa, Birchington. There is little doubt that the bowl "really belongs to the earliest culture of the Early Iron Age, and is a stray relic from a continental centre, where the Hallstatt phase already obtained". This seems to be a personal hoard. (2-4) This hoard and bowl are on exhiition in the Powell Cotton Museum, Quex Park, together with a fragment of a bronze spearhead found in the same area at a later date. The area is now levelled and in use as a school playing field. (5) Birchington 14 palstaves found inside globular urn, 3 ft below the surface in Southend brickfield. The urn is flat bottomed with thin walls and slightly everted neck. Dark brown-black in colour with a row of double roundels set as decoration above a band of six groved lines. The urn would seem to belong to Calkin's Type II. The palstaves consist of twelve Class 3 group 1 palstaves, one class 1 narrow bladed palstave and one class 1 group 5b palstave. (6) See authorities 2,3, and 4. (7) Trial trenches excavated on site of school (centred TR30306865) by Trust for Thanet Archaeology in 1992 revealed no additional evidence of bronze age occupation (or any other archaeological features). Conclusion was that 19thC brickearth excavation has removed the horizon in which the hoard was found. (8)

<1> OS 6" 1961 (OS Card Reference). SKE48369.

<2> Antiquaries Journ 4, 1924, 220-6 (illust) (PHG Powell-Cotton, OGS Crawford et al) (OS Card Reference). SKE33262.

<3> Proc Prehist Soc 15, 1949, 114-15 (CM Piggott) (OS Card Reference). SKE48718.

<4> Archaeol of Kent 1930, 101 (illust) (RF Jessup) (OS Card Reference). SKE37295.

<5> F1 CFW 01-OCT-1963 (OS Card Reference). SKE42381.

<6> BAR 31 (2) The Production and Distribution of Metalwork in the Middle Bronze Age in Southern Britain (OS Card Reference). SKE37525.

<7> Isle of Thanet Archaeol Unit Sites and Mons. Archive 1988, Record No 70 (OS Card Reference). SKE44770.

<8> D Eve 21-FEB-1995 Kent SMR (OS Card Reference). SKE39545.

Sources and further reading