The Thurnham Potin Hoard
In November 2003 Peter and Christine Johnson obtained permission to do some metal detecting on land at Thurnham. Walking onto the field that the farmer had indicated, they began to find a number of coins spread across an area of about 10 square metres. Initially Peter and Christine were not sure of the date of the coins. They informed the farmer of their find, and then returned home to see if they could discover more. Research on the Internet soon identified the coins as Iron Age Potins; cast coins of high tin bronze. Many of the coins still retained traces of the sprue from which they had been snapped.
Figure 1: The Thurnham Potin Hoard
Returning on subsequent days the Johnson's recovered more coins from the same area. Further coins were recovered by John Darvill and Nigel Betts of the Mid-Kent Search and Recovery Club, who also had permission to detect on the land. In total 145 more or less complete coins, and a further 80 fragments were recovered by late November. In the meantime, the finders notified the coroner of the find and contacted the FLO.
Figure 2: A Flat Linear I type Potin, obverse view on the left, reverse view on the right.
All the Potins were of Flat Linear I type, depicting a highly stylised human bust on the obverse, and butting bull on the reverse. One of the coins however, whilst clearly a Flat Linear I, was of a very unusual style, with no obvious parallel.
It was decided to carry out an excavation at the find spot, with a view to recovering as many further coins as possible, and also to try to locate the point of deposition of the hoard, and see if any of it remained in situ. This excavation in early December. The team consisted of Mr and Mrs Johnson along with Keith Stafford, Nigel Betts and John Darvill of the Mid-Kent Search and Recovery Club, Caspar Johnson of Kent County Council's Heritage Conservation Team, Iron Age coins specialist David Holman, and Lyn Palmer, Susie Lee and Pauline Rough of the Kent Archaeological Society. The Portable Antiquities Scheme was represented by Andrew Richardson (Kent FLO) and Liz Wilson (Sussex FLO).
Figure 3: The Thurnham findspot under excavation
A trench removed the ploughsoil across the central area where the coins had been found, revealing stiff orange clay-with-flints at a depth of about 25cm. The trench and spoil were thoroughly metal detected during excavation, as was the immediate area around the dig. No archaeological features were observed, and no finds other than Potins were recovered. Of the latter, a further 59 more or less complete coins, and 78 fragments were recovered. An area of approximately 1 square metre with a concentration of largely complete coins was identified; this probably represented the original point of deposition. Ploughing had dispersed coins across an oval area about 20m by 10m, with the point of deposition lying roughly at the centre. The number of damaged and fragmentary coins appeared to increase with distance from the central zone.
The apparent lack of any pit cut into the clay subsoil, or of any finds other than Potins, suggests that this find represents an isolated hoard, probably contained within an organic pouch or bag and deposited in a shallow pit. Flat Linear I Potins date to between circa 100-50 BC.
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