Rewriting the prehistory of Kent

1: the pot. A unique prehistoric pot has been excavated on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, consisting of three small bowls joined together. The pot had once been under a barrow, where at least three women and an infant had been buried.

The style of the individual bowls is of a type known as Food Vessels (2200–1700BC), but only one multiple example has been seen before, when two conjoined vessels were found in Staffordshire in the 19th century. The find emphasises how little is understood of the variety of small pots, sometimes known as accessory vessels, that commonly accompany early bronze age burials, often of apparently wealthier individuals.

The triple pot lay in the grave of a woman estimated from her bones to have been 17–20 years old. She lay on her side with flexed limbs, nd the pot was standing by her right elbow. A conical amber button was found near her head, and fragments of copper alloy may come from a small pin...

2: the henge. Excavation near Maidstone has uncovered what is claimed to be a henge, a type of ritual earthwork that takes its name from Stonehenge. Henges are seen across Britain in the late neolithic or copper age (3000–2000BC), but this may be only the second demonstrable example in south-east England.

The ring ditch is near the Pilgrim's Way path on the ridge of the North Downs in Hollingbourne. It is 49m across with clear entrances at the north-west and south-east (the larger of the two). There is no sign of a bank, which if this is a true henge would have been outside the ditch; the site is in a ploughed field where any remains above the bedrock...

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British Archaeology 121, November / December 2011: News