Category Archives: Roman pottery

VM_365 Day 296 Mortaria from the 1964 Dumpton Gap site

Archaeology, Broadstairs, Coy Archive, From the Archives, In the Store, Roman, Roman pottery, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 296The image today, for Day 296 of the VM_365 project, is of three sherds of Roman Mortaria, giving a closer look at the types of pottery that were present in the collection of paper bags storing finds from a site archive from 1964.

Mortaria were a distinctive  type of Roman kitchen ware  made in fine light brown and buff fabrics. Mortaria were made by several Roman pottery manufacturers, many based in the region around the Roman town of Verulamium. The steep sided bowls had flat bases and a broad outcropping rim, incorporating a finely  moulded pouring spout. The interior of the bowl was roughened with the addition of sharp grits in the clay fabric.

A well established typology and dating series has been developed for these vessels, often based on the makers stamps that were pressed into the rims. The size of the vessels and the moulding of the rim vary between manufactures and can be used to identify individual vessels. At the Dumpton site the sherds of Mortaria contained in the archive box, and shown in the image here,  represent three separate vessels.

The presence of Mortaria sherds in the pottery assemblage from the site helps to identify what type of site or settlement the material may have come from and  tells us something about its status. Similar Mortaria have been found at both the Abbey Farm Villa at Minster and from a Roman building at Broadstairs, where a well preserved Mortairium was present among many vessels apparently representing the dumped contents of a kitchen.

VM_365 Day 294 Iron Age and Roman pottery sherds from 1964 Dumpton excavation Archive

Archaeology, Coy Archive, From the Archives, In the Store, Iron Age, Ramsgate, Roman, Roman pottery, Thanet, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 294

The image for today’s post on Day 294 of the VM_365 project shows the contents of some of the paper bags, stored in an archive box from an excavation carried out by Joe Coy with the Thanet Excavation Group at Dumpton, between Broadstairs and Ramsgate in 1964.

To understand how important the information contained in the archive is, we need to carefully examine how and why each item has been stored and labelled. In the image above the sherds are laid out on the paper shop bags they were stored in so that they can be assessed in more detail. Later they will need to be catalogued and put into plastic bags which will help to ensure their safe storage in the long term

All but two of the bags in the 1964 excavation box contain pottery sherds. The sherds have generally been marked with a site code and feature number, which we now know corresponds with feature numbers on the sketch plan in the box.

There seems to be no corresponding finds list, description of the pottery or dating for the items in the archive box, so each pottery sherd  may have to be re-examined to understand the date range of the features fully.

However even a casual examination of the material reveals the span of the dates covered by the sherds, apparently a classic assemblage spanning the Late Iron Age and Early Roman period. Many of the pottery sherds are comparable with typical vessel types from other sites the local area, which have featured in earlier VM_365 posts.

The site excavated by Joe Coy and the Thanet Excavation Group in 1964 is very close to a large site excavated at Dumpton Gap by Howard Hurd, one of Thanet’s archaeological pioneers. Although Hurd emphasised the Iron Age aspects of his site, described by him as the remains of ‘a Late Celtic Village’, later excavations suggested that there was a more significant Roman element to the settlement than was previously thought. As we start to understand the 1964 archive, it looks likely that this will make a significant contribution to understanding that Roman settlement phase here.

The analysis will continue in subsequent posts.

VM_365 Day 293 What’s in the archive box?

Archaeology, Broadstairs, Coy Archive, From the Archives, In the Store, Ramsgate, Roman pottery, Thanet's Heritage Pioneers, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 293

The Image for Day 293 of the VM_365 project is of the contents of the small cardboard archive box we started to look at in the post for Day 292. Although we have an idea from the label of the general area where the material may come from, a site at Dumpton Down between Broadstairs and Ramsgate, there is no record of what is actually in the box.

Our first task is to see what sort of material the archive contains, and what condition it is in. Then we need to know what sort of information it might be able to give us. In fact, even at first examination the box contains some very useful material. At least the box doesn’t contain bags of unwashed pottery or dried up leather.  The artefacts, which generally seem to be  pottery sherds of small to large size, seems to have been processed well.

Among the  containers stored in the box amount to eight paper bags from shops, which in themselves amount to something of a historic archive. There are also eight small brown paper envelopes, of a type people would have received cash wages in. Another similar wage packet envelope as a clear window in the front. There is one standard small brown envelope and a quantity of loose pottery sherds, some glued together to reconstruct part profiles. A small card in the box has the address of the excavator, Mr. Joe Coy,  from the  1960’s or 70’s written on it.

Best of all, there is a small paper sketch plan of an excavation, possibly where the artefacts came from. It’s not a perfect plan but it will help to evaluate what the finds in the bags can tell us. Each bag seems to have a feature code written on it, which may correspond with the plan and most of the sherds are marked with a site and feature code.

Although perhaps the containers leave something to be desired in archive stability, polythene mini-grip bags are probably preferable to a paper bag from a butcher’s shop in Margate, they have retained their contents reasonably well in the half century since the excavation was carried out.

In our next post for VM_365 Day 294 we will take a look at what is actually in some of the bags and what we might learn from the finds.

VM_365 Day 276 Recycled pottery spindle whorl

Archaeology, In the Store, Minster, Roman, Roman pottery, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 276

Today’s image for Day 276 of the VM_365 project shows two sides of a ceramic spindle whorl that was found during excavations at Minster, Thanet in 1990.

This Roman spindle whorl  has been recycled from a sherd of a flagon dating to the second half of the 1st century A.D. The pottery sherd has been carefully shaped into a disc and a hole pierced through the centre. The disc is slightly curved, rather than flat, following the  original profile of the flagon. In the picture on the left, marks left from turning the flagon on a potters wheel can clearly be seen as stripes in the fabric.

Other objects associated with weaving including spindle whorls of Iron Age and Late Iron Age/Early Roman date, as well as Iron Age loom weights and an Iron Age weaving comb have previously featured in the VM_365 project

 

VM_365 Day 258 Local Roman copy of a samian bowl form

Archaeology, Roman, Roman pottery, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 258

The image for Day 258 of the VM_365 project shows two views of a Roman bowl that was excavated in the grave that has featured in previous VM_365 posts  along withone of two copper alloy bracelets, a pottery beaker  and  bottle and evidence for the hob nailed shoes the young woman was buried with.

This bowl copies the form of a  samian bowl of Dragendorf 44 type. Samian pottery was generally manufactured on the continent in Gaul but like the bottle in the grave, the bowl was actually manufactured on the North Kent Marshes in pinkish red Hoo St Werburgh fabric. This vessel was difficult to date precisely although it must fall in the time bracket of AD.150-250/300; later than the introduction of the form in samian ware and earlier than the end of the Hoo pottery industry.

The bowl  has a chipped flange and there is knife scoring over the interior surface, suggesting that it had been used before being deposited in the grave.

VM_365 Day 257 Roman bottle from Ramsgate

Ramsgate, Roman, Roman pottery, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 257

Today’s image for Day 257 of VM_365 shows a Roman bottle that was found in a grave excavated in Ramsgate in 2007.  The grave has featured in previous VM_365 posts, along with the finds that were present in the grave, the individual pottery vessels and evidence for the hob nailed shoes the young woman was buried with.

This bottle is classified as Pollard type 169 and has been manufactured in pinkish-brown Hoo St Werburgh fabric. It has a chipped rim, which may have been caused by the flint which was used as a stopper. The vessel dates between  c.AD.150-250/300.

 

VM_365 Day 256 Colour Coated Roman Beaker from Ramsgate Roman Grave

Archaeology, From the Archives, In the Store, Ramsgate, Roman, Roman pottery, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

 

VM 256The image for Day 256 0f the VM_365 project is of a Roman Beaker found in a grave excavated in Ramsgate, which has featured in a series of previous VM_365 posts, along with the finds that were present in the grave and evidence for the hob nailed shoes the individual was buried with.

The beaker is in a colour coated ware, which means that the light coloured fabric of the pottery has been totally covered with a slip of dark glaze. The exterior of the pot was decorated further buy adding a white painted lattice pattern. The beaker was possibly manufactured in Gaul, in 3rd or 4th century AD.

Perhaps a story of greater human interest represented by this vessel are the impressions of the fingers of someone who grasped the body of the vessel before the clay had dried and left a lasting memorial of their otherwise unrecorded existence.

The survival of the intact vessels on the small archaeological site, despite the demolition of the buildings above and the use of a large toothed mechanical excavator bucket to grub out the foundations of the building that stood above it, is a matter of incredible luck.

VM_365 Day 241 Accessory vessel from burial at Thorne, discovered in Gas pipeline

Archaeology, From the Archives, Minster, Monkton, Roman, Roman pottery, Thanet archaeology, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 241

The image for Day 241 of the VM_365 project is of a pottery vessel placed with a skeleton in a Roman grave discovered on a gas pipeline project at Thorne, near Cliffsend. Vessels from a cremation group from the same area, discovered in the same pipeline project, were shown in the post for VM_365 Day 239.

The north south orientated grave contained the skeleton of an adult around 25 years old. The small pottery beaker or jar was found along with a flagon near the head of the individual.

The pot is made in a grog tempered fabric,  where fragments of crushed ceramic has been added to the clay paste. Occasional stone grits are also visible where they protrude from small faults in the surface. The outer surface of the pot has been lightly burnished.

The range of vessels that were recovered from this small cemetery illustrates the market for a wide range of styles of pottery and probably the diverse products that were shipped in the pots, which existed in Thanet in the Roman period. Each grave is  a snapshot of the pottery that lay to hand as the accessory vessels for a burial or cremation were assembled. The surviving vessels from grave groups, as well as those from remarkable survivals like the dump of Roman kitchenware discovered at Broadstairs, allow archaeologists to reconstruct the suites of pottery that were available to settlements in Thanet.

 

 

VM_365 Day 236 Roman cemetery site, Thorne, near Cliffsend

Archaeology, Cliffsend, From the Archives, Roman, Roman pottery, Thorne, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 326

This archive image for Day  236 of the VM_365 project shows a Roman cremation burial under excavation on the Monkton Gas Pipeline in 1983.  A small  cemetery of nine graves including inhumations and cremations was found near Thorne Farm during the installation of the gas pipeline.

The image above shows Grave 6, a cremation contained in a large globular amphora (Dressel type 20). The upper edges of the vessel, including the handles and the rim, were missing; lost through plough damage or stripping the soil for the pipeline.  An adult and a young child were represented by the cremated bones. The bones of small rodents and amphibians , frogs or toads, were found in a soil deposit above the cremated bone.   These creatures had presumably been trapped in the hollow void above the cremation deposit in the vessel after its burial.

The location of cremation and inhumation cemeteries of Roman date can be seen on our map of Roman Thanet shown on Day 61.

 

VM_365 Day 230 Roman cremation burial from Minster, Thanet

Archaeology, From the Archives, In the Store, Minster, Roman, Roman pottery, Uncategorised, VM_365 Project

VM 230

Today’s image for Day 230 of VM_365 shows a Roman vessel which was found during grave digging at the modern cemetery at Tothill Street, Minster in the 1920’s.

This greyware  biconical urn with a carinated rim was found in association with three other vessels, presumably all from the same cremation group.  The group also included a carinated beaker in grey ware with black spots measuring approximatley 10 cm high, a grey ware bowl or platter about 18cm in diameter and a flagon in red fabric measuring approximatley 17.5 cm high. This cremation group dates to the late first to early second century AD.

The biconical urn contained fragments of burnt human bone representing the cremated remains of the individual buried in the pit.  The other vessels are likely to be ancillary vessels deposited in the grave pit alongside the urn, possibly containing food and other offerings for the afterlife.

These vessels were reported in the Antiquaries Journal in 1924 by Mr W. Whiting, an early Roman ceramics specialist who also later worked on the pottery from the early excavations at Richborough Roman Fort in the 1930’s.