WELCOME

CHRISTMAS!

THE KAFS YEAR SO FAR AND

OTHER YEARS...

2018 GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS

AND EXCAVATIONS AT

TESTON ROMAN VILLA

Dear Reader, we will be emailing a Newsletter

‘VICTORIAN GLASS’ AT

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL

each quarter to keep you up to date with news

FOUND TO BE FROM THE 12

and views on what is planned at the Kent

ARCHAEOLOGISTS DETECT

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MOTORISED HIGH-

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A GREEK MERCHANT SHIP

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DATING BACK MORE THAN

2,400 YEARS HAS BEEN

bottom right hand corner click where it says

FOUND LYING ON ITS SIDE

‘Click Here’.

OFF THE BULGARIAN COAST.

I hope you enjoy!

CHRISTMAS GIFTS/BLING!

Paul Wilkinson.

CHRISTMAS GIFTS/AND

SOMETHING FOR THE HOME

SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR:

GAIUS APPULEIUS DIOCLES, A

ROMAN CHARIOTEER EARNED

MORE THAN RONALDO

ARCHAEOLOGICAL GUIDE TO

Breaking News: Christmas!

POMPEII.

THE OLD WAYS

It was a public holiday celebrated around December 25^th in the family home. A time

THE SILK ROADS: A NEW

for feasting, goodwill, generosity to the poor, the exchange of gifts and the

HISTORY OF THE WORLD

decoration of trees. But it wasn’t Christmas. This was Saturnalia, the pagan Roman

SCYTHIANS: WARRIORS OF

winter solstice festival. But was Christmas, Western Christianity’s most popular

ANCIENT SIBERIA

festival, derived from the pagan Saturnalia?

ANGLO-SAXON BIBLE

RETURNS TO ENGLAND AFTER

1302 YEARS

BEOWULF IN KENT BY DR

PAUL WILKINSON

THE KAFS EVENTS

COURSES FOR 2019

KAFS BOOKING FORM

KAFS MEMBERSHIP FORM

The first-century AD poet Gaius Valerius Catullus described Saturnalia as ‘the best

of times’: dress codes were relaxed, small gifts such as dolls, candles and caged

birds were exchanged.

Saturnalia saw the inversion of social roles. The wealthy were expected to pay the

month’s rent for those who couldn’t afford it, masters and slaves to swap clothes.

Family households threw dice to determine who would become the temporary

Saturnalian monarch. The poet Lucian (AD 120-180) has the Roman god Saturn say

in his poem, Saturnalia:

‘During my week the serious is barred: no business allowed. Drinking and being

drunk, noise and games of dice, appointing of kings and feasting of slaves, singing

naked, clapping

an occasional ducking of corked faces in icy water- such

are the functions over which I preside’.

Saturnalia grew in duration and moved to progressively later dates under the

Roman period. During the reign of the Emperor Augustus (63 BC-AD 14), it was a

two-day affair starting on December

17^th. By the time Lucian described the

festivities, it was a seven-day event. Changes to the Roman calendar moved the

climax of Saturnalia to December 25^th, around the time of the date of the winter

solstice.

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The KAFS year so far and other years...

Excavation by the Kent Archaeological Field School over the 2018 summer holidays

has solved an archaeological mystery that that had eluded archaeologists for the

last 100 years. In 1872 Arthur Fremling found in his hop gardens the remains of a

Roman bath house and the find was described as being ‘about four English miles

from Maidstone, on the left side of the river, are to be seen the remains of a

villa

the situation is pleasant, and as is usual in Roman sites, well chosen,

being on a crest of a gently sloping valley looking over the river [Medway]’.

In October 1991 Canterbury Archaeological Trust were called to a site in Teston, just

west of Maidstone to investigate Roman remains uncovered by Southern Water

whilst constructing a new sewer. It became apparent that a Roman building had

been impacted on and CAT’s work uncovered walls that for the most part had been

robbed out. Later in the

20^th century the Maidstone Archaeological Group

investigated the site but could not find the 19^th century discovery of the bath house.

Last year a geophysical survey took place down slope from the CAT discoveries and

possible masonry walls identified. Subsequently the Kent Archaeological Field

School were invited by the owner to investigate the site and a field walking weekend

in March identified an area of disturbed Roman masonry below that of the CAT

discovery and above that of the geophysical survey. Hand digging of test pits

identified a substantial deposit of Roman building material and on opening up the

trench the south wall stretching for 39m was exposed and running east-west, At

each end substantial towers or pavilions were also exposed. Rooms with hypocaust

heating were exposed to the north and stretching into the adjoining field and

towards CATs investigations in 1991.

Marble tessarae from a mosaic pavement were found in the hypocausts along with

copious amounts of painted plaster and window glass. The location of the 1872

discovery was identified and is situated in the north-west area of the villa (see above

plan). It seems the villa developed over the four centuries of Roman government

and although we have identified the main part of the villa there is still areas of the

site which may have additional buildings.

Decorated Samian ware sherds date the construction of the towers or pavilions to

the 2^nd century AD whilst North Thameside ware dated- the main range to late 1^st

century AD, whilst coins recovered from the site range from Nerva (96-98AD) to

Honorius (393-423AD). Anglo Saxon pottery found adjacent to the main range show

occupation in the 7^th century AD

Situated in the upper reaches of the River Medway valley with water connections to

Rochester and London in a setting which is Arcadian the villa estate would have

been the centre of a burgeoning enterprise with the opportunity to exploit the natural

resources of woodland, Kentish rag stone and first class grazing for herds and

flocks. It is also within a day’s journey by water to London and we know from Pliny

and Ausonius the preoccupation of the Roman landed gentry with the Arcadian

delights of the countryside.

"The clear river's tidal flow

Takes me by boat from home,

And brings me home again

Not far from town I live,

Yet not hard by

I change about.

And get the best of town

And country, turn by turn."

These easy verses of Ausonius, a 4^th century villa owner near Bordeaux indicate the

preoccupation of the Roman landed gentry with the Arcadian delights of the

countryside.

But the same mutuality between town and country was at work when the poetic

oxymoron of a well-groomed arcadia took the form of a Roman country villa. The

ancient ideal of country life as a corrective to the corruption, intrigue, and disease of

the town was always a spur to rustication in a locus amoerms, a "place of delight". It

was no accident that Pliny the Younger cited the closeness of his seaside villa at

Laurentinum, seventeen miles from Rome, as one of its chief virtues.

Laurentinum by-the-sea was a weekend place for Pliny, "large enough to afford a

convenient, though not sumptuous reception for my friends." It had a breezy atrium,

hot tubs, a well-stocked library, figs and mulberries in the garden, terrific views over

the water, and a steady supply of fresh seafood. Pliny thought of the view, "not as a

real land, but as an exquisite painting". See ‘courses’ to participate-

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‘Victorian Glass’ at Canterbury Cathedral found to be

from the 12^th century

Stained glass panels at Canterbury Cathedral, previously thought to be the work of

Victorian restorers, have been found to date to the late 12^th century, making them

the earliest known art works depicting pilgrims travelling to Canterbury.

Researchers have just made the exciting discovery at the beginning of a detailed

study of the world-renowned Miracle Windows in the Trinity Chapel. An analysis of

the panels, currently removed from the window and in the stained glass

conservation studio for study, proved that they date back to the 1180s, within 20

years of Thomas Becket’s death and

200 years before Chaucer wrote The

Canterbury Tales.

One of the panels shows pilgrims on foot, pilgrims on horseback and a disabled

pilgrim on crutches on the road together. The incredible detail includes the bright

green and yellow boots of the pilgrims, which were painted with horizontal stripes

and a polka dot decoration. This highly elaborate footwear may have been meant to

underline the importance of the pilgrimage.

Researcher Rachel Koopmans from Toronto’s York University said: “Our work was

prompted by an early photograph of the window which showed these panels

decades before they were thought to have been made. Careful analysis has proved

that while most of the heads were replaced by a modern restorer, the majority of the

glass is original and the panels are genuine medieval compositions. The date of the

panels has been fixed by the distinctive aesthetic style of the glass, which is very

similar to glass dated to 1180, as well as the date of the completion of the rebuilding

of the chapel in which the window is found, 1182-1184.” A second medieval panel,

also thought to have been a Victorian restoration, depicts pilgrims arriving at

Canterbury and queueing up to receive the blood and water relic, a much diluted

mixture of Becket’s blood that pilgrims drank in the hope of miraculous healing.

Director of Canterbury’s Stained Glass Studio Leonie Seliger said: “This discovery is

terrifically exciting. We are delighted to be able have this opportunity for close-up

analysis of the panels which has provided us with fresh information such as being

able to read the inscriptions which had previously been deemed illegible.”

Dr Koopmans is an associate professor of history and is writing a new catalogue of

the glass relating to Thomas Becket in the Cathedral. The project is funded by the

Friends of Canterbury Cathedral and Dr Koopmans’ residence is supported by a

Image generated from a geo-radar showing a Viking ship buried near Halden

The ship lies in farmland in Østfold county in south-east Norway. Just three other

intact ship burials have been recorded in the country; the survival of this one is

remarkable because the imposing burial mound that once covered it has long since

been ploughed out. Another mound, Jelle mound, still rises high in the field, and the

research has also traced the outlines of at least eight other previously unknown

burial mounds that once surrounded it, and five nearby longhouses.

Project leader Lars Gustavsen, an archaeologist from the Norwegian Institute for

Cultural Heritage Research (Niku), said: “The ship burial does not exist in isolation,

but forms part of a cemetery which is clearly designed to display power and

influence.”

There are no immediate plans for excavation, but further non-invasive research will

map the remains and assess their condition.

The find was described as “incredibly exciting” by Knut Paasche, an expert on

Viking ships at Niku. The researchers worked with motorised high-resolution ground-

penetrating radar developed by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological

Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria.

“This new ship will certainly be of great historical significance as it can be

investigated with all modern means of archaeology,” Paasche said.

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A Greek merchant ship dating back more than 2,400

years has been found lying on its side off the Bulgarian

coast.

The 23m (75ft) wreck, found in the Black Sea by an Anglo-Bulgarian team, is being

hailed as officially the world's oldest known intact shipwreck. The researchers were

stunned to find the merchant vessel closely resembled in design a ship that

decorated ancient Greek wine vases.

The rudder, rowing benches and even the contents of its hold remain intact. "It's like

another world," Helen Farr from the expedition told the BBC.

"It's when the ROV [remote operated vehicle] drops down through the water column

and you see this ship appear in the light at the bottom so perfectly preserved it feels

like you step back in time."

The reason the trading vessel, dating back to around 400 BC, has remained in such

good condition for so long is that the water is anoxic, or free of oxygen. Lying more

than 2,000m below the surface, it is also beyond the reach of modern divers.

The vessel was one of many tracking between the Mediterranean and Greek

colonies on the Black Sea coast. It was discovered more than

80km off the

Bulgarian city of Burgas.

The team used two underwater robotic explorers to map out a 3-D image of the ship

and they took a sample to carbon-date its age.The vessel is similar in style to that

depicted by the so-called Siren Painter on the Siren Vase (above) in the British

Museum. Dating back to around 480 BC, the vase shows Odysseus strapped to the

mast as his ship sails past three mythical sea nymphs whose tune was thought to

drive sailors to their deaths.

As yet the ship's cargo remains unknown and the team say they need more funding

if they are to return to the site. "Normally we find amphorae (wine vases) and can

guess where it's come from, but with this it's still in the hold," said Dr Farr.

"As archaeologists we're interested in what it can tell us about technology, trade and

movements in the area."

The ship, which is lying on its side with its mast and rudders intact, was dated back

to 400 BC -- a time when the Black Sea was a trading hub filled with Greek colonies.

The team said the vessel, previously only seen in an intact state on the side of

ancient Greek pottery, was found at a depth of more than 2,000 metres (6,500 feet).

The water at that depth is oxygen-free, meaning that organic material can be

preserved for thousands of years.

"A ship, surviving intact, from the Classical world, lying in over 2km of water, is

something I would never have believed possible," said Professor Jon Adams from

the University of Southampton in southern England, the project's main investigator.

"This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient

world," he said.

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Christmas Gifts/Bling!

Stuck for a Christmas Gift - then try www.danegeld.co.uk who make accurate

historic jewellery and include Celtic to Early Roman to Victorian to Art Deco at

affordable prices...

Sportsman of the year: Gaius Appuleius Diocles, a Roman

charioteer earned more than Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo's billing as the world's highest paid sports star has been

challenged by a historian who claims a little known Roman charioteer holds that title

(Tom Kington of the Times writes). Gaius Appuleius

Diocles was such a successful racer at the Circus Maximus in Rome that he earned

the modern equivalent of $15 billion in his career, far more than the footballer

Ronaldo could dream of, Peter Struck, a professor of Classics at the University of

Pennsylvania, claims.

"Diocles is not well known today, but he out earned all of today's superstars," said

Professor Struck, who found a monument to Diocles built by his fellow charioteers

that listed his total earnings as 35,863,120 sesterces.

Diocles was from Portugal, like Ronaldo, and arrived in Rome to make his name.

"He was probably illiterate and this was his best shot at making a life," Professor

Struck said. "To survive you needed physical strength and a mindless courage.

Death was common, which is what the crowd lusted after."

Diocles survived 24 years in the arena, was known for fast, final sprints and earned

the equivalent of $625 million a year — six times what Ronaldo was paid last year.

On his monument, erected in 146 AD, his admirers wrote Diocles retired at the age

of "42 years, 7 months, and 23 days" as "champion of all charioteers".

His earnings were enough to provide grain for the city of Rome for a year or to pay

all Roman soldiers for about two months when the empire was at its height,

Professor Struck calculated. He compared that with the US armed forces' wage bill

to arrive at the figure of $15 billion.

Author Paul Wilkinson and published by Taurus Books

Pompeian pilgrims will be in good hands with Paul Wilkinson, an old Pompeian

hand, archæologist, journalist, tour-leader and BBC documentary maker.

The index is serviceable, though somewhat choosy on no obvious principle,

especially regarding the names of modern scholars. After a tersely helpful Timeline

from antiquity to AD 1997, the Introduction and trio of chapters survey everyday life

in Pompeii, plus detailed descriptions of the Amphitheatre Riot of AD 59 and the

eruption itself,with full transcriptions of Pliny the Younger’s pair of autoptic accounts.

These pages display how well Wilkinson knows his Pompeian onions.

This book stands or falls with the archæological sites-guide that makes up its

second part. Here, Wilkinson is faultless. His diagrams are clear, the relevant

information dispensed without fuss, with due acknowledgement to the many

archæologists and epigraphers involved. All this written in clear, jargon-free English,

nicely leavened with wit.

The Romans had Pompey the Great. In Wilkinson, we have a Great Pompeian.

Professor Barry Baldwin

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Books for Christmas 2/

The Old Ways

Rating: 5 stars

Author Robert Macfarlane

Finding a bad word to be said about Robert Macfarlane is no easy task. The inside

front cover of the paperback lists 15 authors who made The Old Ways one of their

books of the year last year; the next four pages contain quotations from 35 reviews,

all saying, essentially, "Read this book." There comes a point when exhortation to do

something proves counterproductive; and, further on from that point, it becomes

perverse not to do it.

So I join, eventually, the end of a long line of Macfarlane fans. He is part of what we

are being told these days is a new generation of travel writers who create

personalised accounts of some form of extreme, or at least interesting, geographical

tour. Of course anywhere is interesting if you bring enough attention to it, and this

kind of thing has been going on since Marco Polo's stories were written up in the

13^th century.

Macfarlane tends to prefer the wilder and woollier environments. His second book,

The Wild Places, tried to get as close to wilderness as these islands can provide; I

have not read his first, Mountains of the Mind, because of a review that said he

describes whittling his frozen fingers with a penknife while crawling up, or down,

some godforsaken peak.

We are spared that kind of scene here, I am pleased to report, and I must also add

that "godforsaken" is pretty much the last word Macfarlane would use to describe a

mountain. In his chapter on walking in the Himalayas, he quotes a companion on

the concept of darshan, a Sanskrit word that "suggests a face-to-face encounter

with the sacred on earth; with a physical manifestation of the holy", and we are

reminded that the Sherpas who accompanied the first expeditions had no word to

describe the summit of a mountain, as that was where the gods lived, so it would be

blasphemous even to try to reach one.

But here, unlike in Mountains of the Mind, Macfarlane is more interested in passes

and paths than in summits. He has managed, as far as I can see, to avoid repeating

himself even as he revisits previous haunts. He describes this as "the third book in a

loose trilogy about landscape and the human heart", and that "loose" means it

doesn't matter which order you read them in, or if you only read one. This is really a

book about walking - though there is a good deal, too, about the paths of the sea. It

is illuminating to be told that before the Romans came, there was an extraordinary

amount of sea traffic around the British Isles and Europe, which helps account for

the remarkable genetic similarity of people from various coastal regions extending

from Orkney to Spain. He helps us understand what it is to see the water as criss-

crossed by routes as the land, partly by describing what it feels like to sleep in an

open boat where the only navigational aid is the Pole Star.

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Books for Christmas 3/

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

Rating: 5 stars

Author: Peter Frankopan

Over my life I have tried to read a number of very thick books that cover the world

from the beginning of historical time and have always failed. The books were either

too dense or too dry or did not hold my interest. Yet I knew to read such a book was

really important. I had too many gaps in my knowledge and like many of us would fill

it in with childhood skewed religious classes or flimsy psychological, sociological

and feminist understandings. I needed this so desperately and this book was able to

deliver a wealth of knowledge, a bit of depth to my understanding of world

economics and politics and power dynamics but also, to be honest, despair on the

relentless suffering that most of our fellow beings experience for the majority of their

lives and in all time periods although the races, classes and ethnicities all take their

turn.

What was most appealing about this book to me was that the eye view of whatever

is happening in each time period was primarily kept on the area of the world we

know as the Silk Roads. The turbulent Middle East and the mysterious lands of

Central Asia. Mr. Frankopan was able to give these cultures and places more of a

voice in their importance as well as contribution to knowledge and culture that most

Eurocentric or Far East centric historical books tend to give. I really appreciated this

and helped me understand and integrate gaps in understanding in what I knew from

my few readings in European, American and Chinese history.

Frankopan has accomplished quite a feat in being to condense a world history into

bite size chunks that layered knowledge onto understanding and at times even

illumination as to how we got into the huge mess that is our modern world. His

writing was interesting, neutral, at times entertaining and always with his eye on his

central thesis of the most strategically/economically/culturally relevant areas for

whatever superpowers happened to be flexing their muscles were in the areas of

what we know as the Middle East and Central Asia.

Alice Smith

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Must see exhibitions/1

Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia

Ending

14 January

2018, British Museum, London, Room

30, Sainsbury

Exhibitions Gallery. £16.50, Members/under 16s free 2,500 years ago groups of

formidable warriors roamed the vast open plains of Siberia. Feared, loathed,

admired - but over time forgotten... Until now.

This major exhibition explores the story of the Scythians - nomadic tribes and

masters of mounted warfare, who flourished between 900 and 200 BC. Their

lifestyle and ferocity has echoed through the ages. Other groups from the Huns to

the Mongols have followed in the Scythians' footsteps

- and they have even

influenced the portrayal of the Dothraki in Game of Thrones. The Scythians'

encounters with the Greeks, Assyrians and Persians were written into history but for

centuries all trace of their culture was lost - buried beneath the ice.

Discoveries of ancient tombs have unearthed a wealth of Scythian treasures.

Amazingly preserved in the permafrost, clothes and fabrics, food and weapons,

spectacular gold jewellery - even mummified warriors and horses - are revealing

the truth about these people’s lives. These incredible finds tell the story of a rich

civilisation, which eventually stretched from its homeland in Siberia as far as the

Black Sea and even the edge of China.

Many of the objects in this stunning exhibition are on loan from the State Hermitage

Museum in St Petersburg. Scientists and archaeologists are continuing to discover

more about these warriors and bring their stories back to life.

Explore their lost world and discover the splendour, the sophistication and the sheer

power of the mysterious Scythians.

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Must see exhibitions/2

Anglo-Saxon bible returns to England

after 1302 years

British Library: Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (Now till - 19 February 2019) Mark Brown

Arts correspondent of the London Times writes:

The oldest complete Latin bible in existence, which is one of the greatest Anglo-

Saxon treasures, is returning to England after 1,302 years.

The Codex Amiatinus is a beautiful and gigantic bible produced in Northumbria by

monks in 716 which, on its completion, was taken to Italy as a gift for Pope Gregory

II.

The British Library announced it had secured its loan from the Laurentian Library in

Florence in 2018 for a landmark exhibition on the history, art, literature and culture of

Anglo-Saxon England.

Claire Breay, the library's head of medieval manuscripts, said: "It is the earliest

surviving complete bible in Latin. It has never been back to Britain in 1,302 years but

it is coming back for this exhibition. It is very exciting."

The bible is considered one of the best surviving treasures from Anglo- Saxon

England but is not widely known outside academic circles. "I've been to see it once

and it is unbelievable," said Breay. "Even though I'd read about it and seen

photographs, when you actually see the real thing... it is a wonderful, unbelievably

impressive manuscript."

Part of its power is its size. Nearly half a metre high and weighing more than 75

pounds, over a thousand animal skins were needed to make its parchment.

It was one of three commissioned by Ceolfrith, the abbot of Wearmouth - Jarrow

monastery, and was a mammoth undertaking, said Breay. Of the others, one is lost

and another exists in small fragments at the British Library. Ceolfrith was part of a

team of monks who took the bible to Italy, though he never got to see it arrive as he

died on the journey, in Burgundy, France. It was kept at the monastery in San

Salvatore, Tuscany, before arriving at the Laurentian Library in the late 18^th century,

where it has remained one of its greatest treasures. The Codex Amiatinus will be

displayed alongside the Lindisfarne Gospels and other illuminated manuscripts,

including the Benedictional of St Ethelwold, which includes the earliest surviving

image of the three wise men wearing crowns.Breay said the autumn exhibition

would shine light on the sophistication of Anglo-Saxon culture, a period often

dismissed as the Dark Ages.

These Highlights from the British Library’s outstanding collection of Anglo-Saxon

manuscripts will be presented alongside a large number of exceptional loans.

The Codex Amiatinus, one of three giant single-volume Bibles made at the

monastery at Wearmouth-Jarrow in the north-east of England in the early eighth

century and taken to Italy as a gift for the Pope in 716, will be returning to England

for the first time in more than

1300 years, on loan from Biblioteca Medicea

Laurenziana in Florence. It will be displayed with the St Cuthbert Gospel, also made

at Wearmouth-Jarrow around the same time, and acquired by the British Library in

2012.

We can also reveal that we will be displaying a number of major objects from the

Staffordshire Hoard, found in 2009, including the pectoral cross and the inscribed

gilded strip, on loan from Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent City Councils.

Bringing together the four principal manuscripts of Old English poetry for the first

time, the British Library’s unique manuscript of Beowulf will be displayed alongside

the Vercelli Book on loan from the Biblioteca Capitolare in Vercelli, the Exeter Book

on loan from Exeter Cathedral Library, and the Junius Manuscript on loan from the

Bodleian Library.

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Background reading to the exhibition:

Beowulf in Kent by Dr Paul Wilkinson

Gary Budden writes:

It’s a compelling thought.; the monster Grendel inhabiting the bleak marshlands of

the Isle of Harty (part of what we now call Sheppey), just over the water from the

town of Faversham, separated from the mainland by The Swale. These islands tend

to overfeed the imagination; lost tribes can dwell there, grisly remains, evolutionary

dead ends, the sons of Cain.

Sheppey, and the other small islands that appear as odd unmarked blanks of green

on Google Maps, hold dark histories. Deadmans Island and Burnt Wick Island, so

close to home and practically unknown, are borderline inaccessible. They hold the

mass graves of Napoleonic French prisoners who died on the prison hulks (you’ll

know them from Great Expectations) and their bones now rise from the silt. Walk the

Hollow Shore between Faversham and Whitstable, look out over to the island

across the Swale, no one else around and the wind stinging the eyes. It’s easy to

feel Anglo-Saxon in such a place.

More than anything we want the monsters to be there.

I remember looking at the Beowulf manuscript in the British Library for a long time

the first time I saw it. It exerted a pull over me that beat any Chinese scroll or Lewis

Carroll diary. I read the Heaney translation, discovered American writer John

Gardner’s monster-perspective novel, Grendel, as part of the Fantasy Masterworks

series (terrible cover). I even watched the film written by Neil Gaiman and with Ray

Winstone as our founding English hero, getting entangled with a version of

Grendel’s mother who was rather sexier than I’d always imagined.

When I started researching the areas of north east Kent where I grew up, especially

the stretch of coast along the Thames estuary, I came across a curious piece of

information on the Faversham website:

Nearly ten years ago Dr Paul Wilkinson, a Swale archaeologist, and Faversham

journalist and business woman Griselda Mussett contributed a Faversham Paper

which makes a strong, and believable, claim based on topographical and oral and

written folk history that the Beowulf legend had its origins among place names that

were commonplace and are still to be seen around the Faversham area.

I tracked down the papers via the Faversham society and duly received them in the

post. I felt like I was falling down a rabbit hole of crackpot theories and dubious

speculation. If I’m honest, I wasn’t much interested in the truth of any of the theories.

The story appealed. Ray Winstone’s cockney accent suddenly made a sort-of

sense. Beowulf as the ex-Londoner moved out to the estuary.

Paul Wilkinson’s colour booklet, Beowulf on the Island of Harty in Kent proudly

proclaims AS SEEN ON TV in its bottom right corner, and features the Sutton Hoo

mask as its cover, which already seems to be muddying the issue. Near the

beginning, he does concede what we’re really dealing with here is mythology, not

archaeology or science:

Mythology, on the other hand, is concerned above all with what happened in the

beginning. It’s signature is ‘Once upon a time’ and our English beginning could be a

small island called Harty just off, but belonging to, the port of Faversham in Kent.

In this Kentish interpretation of the tale, Harty becomes Heorot (Hrothgar’s hall).

Heorot sits at the heart of a large Lathe, or administrative area, the schrawynghop,

an area ‘inhabited by one or several supernatural malignant beings’.

The theory even goes as to suggest that Beowulf was buried under Nagden mound

(a possible artificial hill that was destroyed in 1953 by men contracted to rebuild the

sea wall between Faversham and Seasalter, after the great North Sea flood.),

though by this point the theory has fallen more into wishful thinking and a lot of

‘maybes’ rather than anything that could approximate a credible argument. In my

fictional landscape, Grendel and his mother fit in well with the bodies of those dead

Frenchman, the prisons across the water on Sheppey, the bleak marshes, the

boxing hares and the black curlews of my own fictions.

I know these tidal flats and malignant bogs were dry land once, attached to the

Doggerland landmass that connected what was to become Britain to the coasts of

Germany and Denmark. My mind already is flowing with ideas, stories of the last

remaining malignant supernatural beings that inhabited Doggerland making a last

stand in the Kentish marshes. Wiped out by Ray Winstone. Grendel having his arm

pulled from its socket on the demon marsh in the Thames estuary. A dragon above

Faversham.

It’s a good idea for a story, right?

Maybe that’s enough.

Beowulf in Kent - YouTube

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We will be back in Oplontis in the first three weeks in June 2018 for another

season of excavation and anyone can join our team. The only criteria is that you

are a member of the Kent Archaeological Field School www.kafs.co.uk and that you

have some experience or enthusiasm for Roman archaeology, Italian food and

Italian sunshine! See also the website for the project at www.oplontisproject.org.

Please note food, accommodation, insurance, and travel are not included.

Flights to Naples are probably cheapest with EasyJet. To get to Pompeii take a bus

from the Naples airport to the railway station and then the local train to Pompeii.

Hotels are about 50eu for a room per night.

We are staying at are the Motel Villa dei Misteri and the Hotel degli Amici.

[email protected] [email protected] For camping the site Camping Zeus is

next to the hotel: [email protected] and is about 12eu a night.

Transport to Oplontis from Pompeii is not provided but most of the group use the

local train (one stop). Please note it can be hot so bring sun cream and insect

repellent! Any queries email me at [email protected] or in Naples call my mobile on

07885 700 112. We will meet up at 8am every Monday morning of the dig to start

the new week. This may be the last year so grasp the opportunity! Places are

limited.

Paul Wilkinson

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Courses at the Kent Archaeological Field School for 2019

will include:

Field Walking and Map Analysis Saturday 13^th April Field work at its most basic

involves walking across the landscape recording features seen on the ground. On

this weekend course we are concerned with recognising and recording artefacts

found within the plough soil. These include flint tools, Roman building material,

pottery, glass and metal artefacts. One of the uses of field walking is to build up a

database for large-scale regional archaeological surveys. We will consider the

importance of regressive map analysis as part of this procedure. The course will

cover:

1. Strategies and procedures,

2. Standard and non-standard line walking, grid walking,

3. Pottery distribution, identifying pottery and building ceramics.

We will be in the field in the afternoons so suitable clothing will be necessary.

Cost £10 if membership is taken out at the time of booking. For non-members the

cost will be £25.

Wye Roman Villa and Water mill: Good Friday 19^th April to Sunday 28^th April

Archaeological excavation on the site of a recently discovered Roman Villa and

water mill at Wye in Kent

On this ten day course we shall look at the ways in which archaeological sites are

discovered and excavated and how different types of finds are studied to reveal the

lives of former peoples. Subjects discussed will include aerial photography,

regressive map analysis, HER data, and artefact identification. This course will be

especially useful for those new to archaeology, as well as those considering

studying the subject further. After tea break we will participate in an archaeological

investigation on a Roman building under expert tuition. Expert diggers are not

required to participate in the tool box talks.

Cost for members is £50 for the week or £10 a day if membership is taken out at the

time of booking. For non-members the cost will be £75 for the week or £15 a day.

Excavating at 'Villa B' at Oplontis next to Pompeii in Italy: 20^th May to 6^th June

2019

We will be spending four weeks in association with the University of Texas

investigating the Roman Emporium (Villa B) at Oplontis next to Pompeii. The site

offers a unique opportunity to dig on iconic World Heritage Site in Italy and is a

wonderful once in a lifetime opportunity. NOW FULLY BOOKED

Email Paul Wilkinson at [email protected] for further details

Frescoes from Oplontis ‘Villa B’

The final investigation of a substantial Roman Aisled Building at Faversham in

Kent: Saturday 4^th May to Sunday 12^th May 2019.

Nine days investigating the final area of a substantial Roman building to find out its

form and function. This is an important Roman building and part of a larger Roman

villa complex which may have its own harbour. One of the research questions we

will be tackling is the buildings marine association with the nearby tidal waterway.

Cost for members is £50 for the week or £10 a day if membership is taken out at the

time of booking. For non-members the cost will be £75 for the week or £15 a day.

Training Week for Students on a Roman Villa at Faversham in Kent

It is essential that anyone thinking of digging on an archaeological site is trained in

the procedures used in professional archaeology. Dr Paul Wilkinson, author of the

best selling "Archaeology" book and Director of the dig, will spend five days

explaining to participants the methods used in modern archaeology. A typical

training day will be classroom theory in the morning (at the Field School) followed by

excavation at the Abbey Fields Roman villa near Faversham.

Topics taught each day are:

Monday 6^th May (Bank Holiday): Why dig?

Tuesday 7^th May: Excavation Techniques.

Wednesday 8^th May: Site Survey.

Thursday 9^th May: Archaeological Recording.

Friday 10^th May: Small Finds.

Saturday and Sunday (free) digging with the team

A free PDF copy of "Archaeology" 3rd Edition will be given to participants. Cost for

the course is £100 if membership is taken out at the time of booking plus a

Certificate of Attendance. The day starts at 10am and finishes at 4.00pm. For

directions to the Field School see 'Where ' on the KAFS website.

Archaeological Survey for Students: Saturday 6^th July, Sunday 7^th July 2019

An opportunity to participate in excavating and recording Roman features in the

landscape.

Cost for members is £10 a day if membership is taken out at the time of booking.

For non-members the cost will be £15 a day.

Excavation of a Roman villa at Teston near Maidstone: Saturday 3^rd August to

Sunday 11^th August 2019