A definite and another possible Early Neolithic pit was discovered on Plateau 1, at the northern end of the ‘Thanet Earth’ excavations. One appears to have contained a structured deposit that included pottery and large quantities of cereal grains.

Pit S10454 was sub-oval or kidney-shaped in plan and just over 2m long and c. 1.2m wide, with its long axis aligned near north-south. In profile it was c. 0.7m deep, with steep, near vertical sides curving to a near flat base that sloped slightly down to the east. Its primary fill contained abundant carbon, with burnt clay and flint, along with fragments of chalk and a small quantity of cremated human bone. It produced 180 sherds of early Neolithic pottery placed on or near the base, along with large amounts of grain, hazelnut and some seashell, though hardly any flint artefacts or debitage were recovered. The sherds represented an almost complete bowl and part of a large Carinated Bowl. The remainder of the latter vessel was dispersed throughout the middle and upper deposits, thus indicating fairly rapid infilling. Both vessels were in a reasonable condition. The Carinated Bowl likely derived from a domestic context, it is possible that it may ‘have been deliberately broken and deposited soon after breakage, or carefully curated before final deposition’. Both vessels have been dated to around 3900–3750 BC. A tetraploid wheat grain from lower fill was radiocarbon dated to 3994–3668 cal BC. Significant amounts of tetraploid free threshing wheat. Hulled barley and possible naked barley grains were also present, along with a few grains of emmer-type wheat. The second possible early neolithic pit (S1371) was located to the west, it was 0.52m wide, 0.66m long and 0.16m deep with a U-shaped profile. It was filled with a charcoal-rich black silty loam that contained an early Neolithic polished flint axe fragment and two axe thinning fragments along with other debitage, and twenty-four undiagnostic prehistoric pot sherds and traces of unidentified calcined bone. (information summarised from source) (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2023, Beneath the Seamark: 6000 Years of an Islands History (Monograph). SKE55405.