Report: Focus on the finds - the pottery

A few pottery highlights from the finds tray!  Dr Paul Bidwell has assessed the ceramics, and most of the Roman pottery is 2nd-3rd century in date.

SAMIAN
Though the Samian was generally in rather a poor condition due to the soil conditions on site, we still had a fair amount of interesting sherds.

Fig. 1 Mars?

This fragment of Samian might depict Mars, as the figure appears to be holding a spear.  If it is Mars, it's a great partner to our Venus from last season!  The piece is from a Dragondorff 37 bowl

Figure 2 - Dancing girl?

This sherd may show a dancing girl, or could be a particular goddess. The piece is from a Dragondorff 37 bowl

 

 Fig. 3 Plain cup

This is a sherd of Samian from a plain cup, Dragondorff form 33.  It would have been used for drinking wine!

Fig. 4 Samian decoration

The Dragondorff 37 form has a bead rim, which means it's small and and rounded.  These joining sherds are a little burnt, but show the decoration often found at the top of Dragondorff 37 bowl.  The fancy decoration is called ovolo, or egg and tongue moulding.

Fig 5. Roman ink well

These Samian inkwell sherds were found on the beach. It has an inner lip to prevent spillage and is possibly Samian form Ritterling 13, similar to this.

OTHER POTTERY

Fig. 6 Head pot sherds

These strange looking sherds are fragments of head pots, decorated with bosses and a straited cordon.  They have parallels in York and generally the north-east.

Fig. 7 Pot lids? - two ceramic (top left & bottom right, and two stone (top right & bottom left)

These circular pieces are often identified at pot lids, gaming counters or may be some sort of weights.  Also, recently, there was another theory - that they were Roman toilet 'paper.'   Not totally convincing, especially due to the rather hard nature of the pot and stone!  This clutch all came from the same context - it remains to be seen if they were near a latrine ...

Fig. 8 Moselkeramik beaker

These joining sherds are from a Moselkeramik indented beaker.  The slip is dark, almost metallic.  These pots come from the Trier area, Germania.

Of course we had lots more pottery which will be reported on in due course

Report: The Pottery - why field archaeologists need specialists!

A selection of pottery from the Project Results Evening 3rd June 2014

Dr Paul Bidwell, our pottery specialist for this project, has looked at the sherds from the 2013 excavations. Here is a short section of his assessment report:

The date and character of the overall assemblage

Much of the [Roman] pottery [from 2013] was from contexts containing medieval and post-medieval pottery. ... most is datable to the 2nd and 3rd centuries and represents a similar range of sources. All the amphora sherds were from Dressel 20s, from southern Spain; there were many fragments of Mancetter-Hartshill mortaria and a few sherds from mortaria made in the North-West; fine wares consisted of samian ware (often in poor condition) and a single sherd of a Moselle beaker of 3rd-century date. The other coarse pottery was mainly BB1 and grey wares, the latter local, or at least north-western products; there were some oxidised-ware sherds, which generally represented flagons or storage jars.

Some diggers may remember that during the excavation, we found some sherds of mortaria, and thought it was fourth century Crambeck Ware. It now seems that this pottery was in fact from Mancetter Hartshill in the Midlands, and dates between the second and third century! 

Mancetter Hartshill mortarium

The reason we thought it was Crambeck Ware is that some of the sherds had red paint in typical Crambeck patterns, plus the fabrics were pale in colour. However, the hints that it was something else were there, in particular the fabric, which is a little different, but was put down to post depositional action of the soil. Not so! 

It turns out that one of the current theories about Crambeck Ware is that potters from Mancetter Hartshill industry actually moved up to Yorkshire, taking their red painting habits with them. This is a pretty typical example of why archaeologists out in the field also need experts in the various categories of finds - we can't be experts in everything.

The majority of the Ravenglass pottery so far is third century, though there is a scattering of fourth century sherds. Paul Bidwell noted that there is amphora from Spain, Samian from France/Germany and pottery from Germany. So Ravenglass is showing it has connections abroad, and within Britain, which is exactly the sort of thing we should be expecting from a Roman site.

Comment: Venus Anadyomene

When I saw first saw the dig's lovely Samian sherd with a female figure on it, I immediately thought it's Venus, and wasn't sure why, apart from the fact she has no clothes on!:

So I've looked into it more closely, and realised I may have been thinking of Roman pipeclay figurines, like this Venus here, from York Archaeological Trust's Excavations at 24-30 Tanner Row:

This is what Dave Hooley said about this figurine in 'General points from an accident of fortune' Archaeology in York Interim Volume 13 No 1, 1988, page 18-19:

Venus was not simply the 'Goddess of Love', she is depicted here [see the photograph above] as Venus Anadyomene, a guise which derives its inspiration from Aphrodite's birth from the seas, and is believed to be a dedication to the water-nymph guardian of the sacred waters from which all life flows. The figurine itself is almost certainly made  in Central Gaul.

The lifting of her hand is to shake water from her hair.  In addition Samian is imported from Gaul, where the pipeclay figurines are also made. So maybe this is common them for that area of the Empire, and it isn't a surprise to also find her on Samian.  I was certainly able to find archaeological reports online which mentioned the motif appearing on Samian, such as that found at Piercebridge.


However, I could easily be wrong, and it'll be interesting to see what the Samian experts say when the pottery is written up in coming years.

Report: By Supervisor Rowan - What did we find in Trench 3?

Photo 1: Trench 3, the wall parallel with the east wall

Photo 2: Trench 3, the east wall (right), possible oven (centre foreground) and north wall (upper centre)

On the higher ground at the south-east end of the trench were the footings of two stone-built walls, running diagonally across the trench and probably joining at a corner just outside the edge of excavation (Photo 2). These were built of medium-sized stones, with white clay possibly used as a bonding material, and appeared to be part of one building. A brown clay-silt deposit lay between and partially over the walls, with two small areas of stone and pea-grit surfacing set into hollows in the top of the deposit. The ‘Venus’ sherd of Samian pottery came from one of these surface areas. A deposit of burnt clay overlying a charcoal layer was located against the west side of the eastern wall of the building, cut into the clay-silt surface, and could represent the remains of a clay oven. This activity seemed to post-date the demolition of the building. An orange clay layer found below the clay-silt deposit could be remains of an earlier floor surface associated with the building.

A further possible wall was located to the east of, and parallel with, the eastern wall. This had a different construction style, being narrower, with small, neatly set stones forming a flat surface, and a row of larger stones along the eastern side (Photo 1). The wall was covered by a line of pinkish-red clay with burnt timbers to either side, suggesting this structure had stone footings and clay and timber walls. The full extent of this wall has not yet been revealed, and it is unclear if it is later in date than the building to the west. A linear gully or slot (not yet investigated) ran parallel to this wall, and a further vertical-sided linear cut ran off it at a right angle.

In the north-west part of the trench was a possible cobbled surface; and a second line of pinkish clay, which could be similar to that overlying the walls to the south-east.

Various possible cut features were observed cut into all of the deposits, suggesting there was prolonged, intensive occupation in this part of the site.

Finds: More Samian!

Trench 2 has yielded another piece of Decorated Samian. This time, the piece is a little bit battered and it's not so obvious what the design is.  The Finds Officer thinks it might be a hunting scene, which is a frequent theme, but we're open to suggestions!

Report: 19th September

The rain it did rainith once more, but managed to stop around lunchtime so digging recommenced with vigour.

Trench 1 now has great evidence for a wall foundation, as shown in the above picture with the massive stone blocks.  The date of the feature is currently unknown.  It's surrounded by a layer of smaller stones which may be demolition debris.

In Trench 2 there appears to be evidence of a collapsed wall, which may have been part of a building, or perhaps a boundary.  There is a long sequence of activity which became apparent when digging a sump in an attempt to drain the trench of water (!)  There are traces of possible burnt timbers.  Also discovered in the sump was a water course which may have been there before the Roman settlement.

In Trench 3 there is evidence of a sequence of occupation involving more than one building. Floor deposits are currently being dug, and samples for environmental evidence are being taken. This is also the trench that yielded one of the best pieces of Roman Samian ware so far. This sherd is rather less soluable than previous pieces (though still fragile) and current thinking is that it shows Venus. She is surely a candidate for being printed on next year's dig t-shirt!: