Ceramics of the south-east: new directions

The South East region contains a complete ceramic sequence, although overall the distribution of various ceramic styles is varied, with marked concentrations along the coastal regions of Sussex and Kent, and along the corridor of the Thames (Surrey). Since the 1990s the impact of developer funded archaeology has added significantly to the number of known assemblages, although the distribution of the new material tends to reflect those areas that have seen most development. In this respect it is not surprising that considerable new assemblages have been found in parts of Kent where there have been major infrastructure projects. The Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), for example, which passes through the Medway Valley (an area with major groups of monuments) and then crosses the North Downs dip slope to the coast (an area devoid of Neolithic monuments) (see Ashbee 2004, 11), has produced 11 assemblages of earlier prehistoric pottery. Notable sites include Sandway Road, Cobham, Tutt Hill, Whitehill Road, Beechbrook Wood and Saltwood Tunnel (Barclay and Edwards 2007), and the dry valley at White Horse Stone/Pilgrim’s Way (see Hayden this web site). Important too is the discovery of sites under colluvium, perhaps the most significant of which are White Horse Stone with its early Neolithic buildings, late Neolithic stake and post circles and multiple pit deposits, and Holywell Coombe with its Beaker settlement. Developer-funded projects have also added a number of new causewayed enclosures to areas of Kent, notably on the Isle of Sheppey (Kingsborough Farm) and at Ramsgate (Healy, this web site; Lievers, this web site).