Monument record TR 26 NE 1344 - Possible Late Bronze age/Early Iron Age saltworking site

During excavations carried out along the foreshore at Minnis bay, a large pit with dimensions 2.13m x 2.45m, depth 60-73cm, and it yielded 256 sherds (2kg+), of pottery. The assemblage contained fairly large quantities of elements from briquetage evaporation vessels, including body sherds, knife trimmed tops and ends and base angles. Overall the assemblage includes both worn and mostly near fresh elements, of small to frequently large size. Some of the sherds showed both horizontal and in some cases vertical finger wiping, which is similar to another assemblage at St Mildred’s Bay about 2.75 miles to the east of Minnis Bay. Some pieces show exterior salt deposits or staining and some have very worn interior surfaces. Minnis Bay, together with St Mildred’s Bay, has produced the largest assemblage of c.1000-700 bc salt-making briquetage in the county and that the form of the evaporating vessels used has links all the way to contemporary settlements along the Atlantic coast of western France. Pit U also contained sherds of various sizes, in a fairly fresh condition, of both f ineware and coarseware from two other pottery vessels. One group forms a part profile of an elegant jar and the other is a jar rim with a neat cable style decoration on the rim and horizontal fingertip impressions on the shoulder. There was one piece of sub fineware. The sherds show signs that these vessels were either used in the salt making processes or had been contaminated by them. A remarkable find in this pit was part of a wooden ladder (Gibbons 2017, 273). The ladder was leaning upright against the wall of the pit. The two uprights of the ladder are about 36cm apart at the level of the one remaining rung, which was mounted at a slight angle and wedged in place. There are three other rung positions, spaced at varying intervals ranging from 15cm to 24cm.

<1> Trevor and Vera Gibbons, 2018, The Archaeological Pits of Minnis Bay, Birchington, Kent 2000 - 600BC Bronze age and Early Iron Age (Unpublished document). SKE58996.