During excavations associated with the construction of two new housing blocks at 135 All Saints Avenue in Margate, a group of pits with possibly deliberately placed flint tools and flint working debris were discovered, these were dated to the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age or Beaker period.

Two pits (307 and 3014) are the earliest dateable features on the site. These were particularly rich in Prehistoric flint-work; though the lack of other general domestic refuse (e.g. pottery, animal bone and shell) might suggest that this area may have been visited as a 'working' location, rather than a settlement one. Soil conditions may have been particularly poor for the preservation of much bone and shell though the lack of pottery is striking. The people who dug and filled the two pits (307 and 3014) may have been visiting this marshside site to exploit the natural resources of opportunities for hunting and foraging and appear to have left two 'caches' of tools at the site. It is possible that these tool caches are signifiers of a deliberate decision to bury the tools as part of a culturally significant act. Pit 307 was roughly circular and survived to a depth of 0.5m, the profile showed a distinct shoulder forming a platform near the base. The feature could potentially have been a large post setting. The pit was partly explored in the evaluation excavation of Trench 3 and was fully excavated in the area excavation because of the discovery of the flint tool cache in a compact cluster at the base of the pit. Sherds of Middle Neolithic Peterborough ware and Beaker type pottery were also contained in the fill (306). The worked flint comprises many flakes, cores and finely executed tools including a serrated blade and an oblique arrowhead of Clark's Class G type (Green 1980) Some friable animal bone was also recovered. Pit 3014 was discovered in the open area excavation of the Eastern Block, 1.8m north east of cut 307 and was fully excavated. The feature was roughly circular but shallower than pit 307 with a more evenly curved profile. Again the fill was rich in finds mainly of worked and burnt flint, including a long end-scraper(potentially a 'plane'). The form of one piece suggests that it may be a crude rough-out of an arrowhead (Sutton (A) -type; Green 1980). Some friable animal bone was also recovered. The character of the flint finds suggest that this pit could be related to the activity represented by pit 307. Pit 3014 was initially ascribed to the Middle Bronze Age on account of a small sherd of probable Deverel-Rimbury pottery. However, it was felt that the flint content of the pit seemed to ally this feature more with pit 307. The long end-scraper from pit 3014 would seem to be particularly out of place in a Middle Bronze Age deposit. Also, on a cursory inspection, some of the waste (including a possible tortoise core, which are more often thought to be Late Neolithic) may also be indicative of a higher standard of flintknapping than would generally be expected in a Middle Bronze Age assemblage. The possible Sutton-type arrowhead 'roughout' though, could conceivably occur in an early Middle Bronze Age context (Green 1980). A group of pits was excavated at the eastern end of the area of excavation. The earliest of the pits; cut 3065 (filled by 3063, 3062, 3061, 3060 in stratigraphic order) in the northern segment; cut 3055 (filled by deposits 3054 and 3056) in the southern segment; had an irregular and undulating base and seemed possibly to be a natural feature perhaps a tree-throw or to suggest a more positive intervention a root ball deliberately grubbed out. The fills of this feature are largely polarised into a dark fill with occasional finds (deposits 3062) and clean, re-deposited natural-like deposits (3061), a fragment of burnt flint was recovered from within an area of 3062 which underlay 3061 demonstrating that it is not entirely natural in origin. This irregular disturbed area had in turn been cut on its north-western edge by a more clearly defined pit cut 3029. The deposit filling the outer north-western edge of pit 3029 (3052) appears to be cut by the Phase 3 ditch 3020 although the relationship is not entirely convincing. The upper fill of cut 3029 (deposit 3059) is also cut by a small curved profile pit of similar dimensions and profile to cut 3014. The dark fill deposit 3062 produced a few finds; most from on or near the surface of the feature which included a Mid/Later Neolithic pot sherd and fine flint blade segment (possible part of a composite tool), but also a Medieval pot sherd and an iron object. An upper fill of the same feature (3060) contained two Mid Neolithic and one early Bronze Age sherds. The latest pit in the sequence produced an uncontaminated assemblage of Mid Neolithic and Early Bronze Age sherds and it is possible that the medieval finds from the stratigraphically earlier irregular pit were brought in from surface disturbance or animal burrowing which was suggested by the irregular surface of the pit group. The pit group has therefore been assigned to Phase 2 but a strict reading of the stratigraphy and finds assemblage could indicate that the feature was the product of residual material, possibly from further truncated prehistoric features being incorporated into a series of medieval or later intrusions. (information summarised from source) (1-2)
(2)

<1> Trust for Thanet Archaeology, 2004, 135 All Saints Avenue, Margate, Kent: Archaeological Evaluation Report (Unpublished document). SKE17623.

<2> Trust for Thanet Archaeology, 2005, 135 All Saints Avenue, Margate, Kent: Archaeological Assessment Report (Unpublished document). SKE24006.