{"id":264,"date":"2009-09-16T00:00:35","date_gmt":"2009-09-16T04:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/?p=264"},"modified":"2013-09-12T13:58:18","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T17:58:18","slug":"treasures-of-sittingbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/?p=264","title":{"rendered":"Treasures of Sittingbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

In May 2008, construction of a mixed retail-residential development called “The Meads” commenced in an area known to have been scraped clear by Victorian brick-clay diggers.\u00a0It was believed that any artifacts or graves would have been found then, 100+ years ago despite aerial photography in 1982 that showed evidence of large ring ditches on the site. A watching brief was placed on the construction site by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust.\u00a0Not only were prehistoric rings discovered, but a major Anglo-Saxon cemetery dating from the mid-6th to the late 7th century.<\/p>\n

\"Prehistoric<\/a>

Prehistoric ring ditch<\/p><\/div>\n

Archaeologists and volunteers from surrounding communities, working with the Canterbury Archaeological Trust and Sittingbourne Heritage Museum discovered hundreds of Anglo-Saxon graves and thousands of relics (e.g., jewelry, buckles, garnet brooches, sword mounts, pots, jars, glass drinking horns) reminiscent of the Staffordshire Hoard.<\/p>\n

\"Glass<\/a>

Glass drinking horns from Grave 184<\/p><\/div>\n

After two years of excavation, work on The Meads site ended in 2011 due to a lack of funds. Many finds were left embedded in soil blocks and others will be moved to storage for future examination.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. “Town’s past recovered from graves<\/a>“, BBC News, 2009-09-16<\/li>\n
  2. “How Sittingbourne discovered an archaeological treasure trove<\/a>“, The Guardian, 2010-08-15<\/li>\n
  3. “CSI Sittingbourne archaeology project closes<\/a>“, BBC News, Kent, 2011-09-22<\/li>\n
  4. “Saxon Sittingbourne<\/a>“, Sittingbourne Heritage Museum<\/li>\n
  5. “A Prehistoric and Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at the Meads, Sittingbourne<\/a>“,\u00a0Canterbury Archaeological Trust<\/li>\n
  6. “Sittingbourne Excavation<\/a>“, Flickr<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In May 2008, construction of a mixed retail-residential development called “The Meads” commenced in an area known to have been scraped clear by Victorian brick-clay diggers.\u00a0It was believed that any artifacts or graves would have been found then, 100+ years … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[20,27],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ring","tag-sittingbourne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274,"href":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions\/274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteravens.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}