(Summarised from publication)

A pottery lined storage pit was recovered in association with an Anglo Saxon structure (N8) during excavations to the north-west of Market Street, Dover. The pot, which was a storage jar or cooking pot and was substantially complete, had been placed carefully in a purposefully dug pit, to the north west of the associated structure.

The base and the rim were already missing, but the main body of the pot had been laid in the pit to form a continuous lining about 55cm in diameter. The actual base of the pit had been lined with fragments of Roman tile and chalk lumps. It resembles a hearth, but the general absence of any burnt material suggests that it was used as a container. The vessel is shell loaded and appears to date to the 10th-11th centuries. Presumably it served either a domestic or industrial process for which it seems to have formed an underground storage pit, probably sealed by a portable lid. (1)

<1> Brian Philp., 2003, The Discovery and Excavation of Anglo Saxon Dover (Monograph). SKE31831.