Anglo-Saxon or early medieval pits were excavated in 1986 at Stour Street. The pits contained decomposed organic material. Environmental sampling and analysis of material from these features identified a range of artefacts. These included "fragments of brick/tile, wood, fish, bird, and mammal bone, shell fragments, a snail (Helix aspersa), hazelnut shell and fruit stones...The sample included well preserved invertebrate remains which included a classic urban assemblage of beetles and bug dominated by decomposer taxa, an earwig, an ant, an aphid, beetle larvae, fly puparia, and mites. Seeds were also abundant. Small pieces of charcoal and fuit stones were also noted" (from the original report, 1). Fruit stones/seeds/plant remains at the site included sloe, wild/small domesticated plum, strawberry, blackberry, apple, ?leek, cereal bran, and corn cockle seeds. Other insect remains recovered from the site include a mould beetle, and the remains of a seed/bean weevil. Some of the organic material is thought to represent mineralized faeces. Other material included 2 pottery sherds dated to the 11th-12th centuries. (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1993, Stour Street A, Canterbury, Archaeological Excavations 1986 Assessment of Environmental Evidence (Unpublished document). SKE55936.