Report: Keeping a beady eye out!

In the past few days at Ravenglass we've done very well for beads. We only had one last year, which was eventually identified as being made of jet.  But now we have a couple of more (at this rate we'll have enough for an actual necklace).

First there was Hayden's - he was hacking away, and some how managed to see this tiny glass bead, which is only about 2mm wide.  It's difficult to photograph, even with a macro lens, so apologies for the quality:

Tiny glass bead

And then there was another very recently, found by John. This time, the material is uncertain. It could be glass, but on comparison with the bead from last season, it's very likely to be jet.  Elsewhere in Roman Britain, there are plenty of glass melon beads so perhaps this bead is imitating them? Again, it's fairly small, this time being about 10mm wide.

Probable jet bead

Today (12 September) on site it's Open Day, so we've got lots of visitor attractions, including finds from last season, information about vicus, site tours, and even 'have a go' digging in Trench 4 with Jon Kenny, Community Archaeologist from York Archaeological Trust.  It's all happening again tomorrow, so if you've missed today, pop along tomorrow and see the site and finds.

The gazebos on site

Comment: Tullie House Museum, Carlisle

Kurt went to visit the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle recently to check out the Crosby Garrett Helmet currently being displayed there. Catch it while you can, as it continues its travels 26th January!

There was also a newly refitted Roman Frontier Gallery to explore, and there were a plethora of interesting Roman finds from Carlisle on show.  Here's a taster:
 

This is an elegant way of showing how the hair pins of bone and jet would be worn by a Roman woman, and also shows the glass beads she may have worn

Here's a selection of Roman glass beads, including three examples of melon beads

Roman bronze brooches which would have held up a Roman woman's dress (stola), as well as being decorative, and having a chain joining them (for further bling effect!)

 

An antler/bone comb.  The Romans didn't have hair brushes, just using combs instead.

 It's Venus Anadyomene again!

A steelyard, along with its lead weight, used for weighing out food and other commodities

A side-on view of the Roman ceramic roof tile system.  The flat tile, with edges turned up is called a tegula, and the curved tile is called an imbrex. 

Report: A few finds from site!

This is just a selection of finds from site:

Please forgive the fuzzy picture - to give you the hint as to why it's fuzzy, the scale is in millimetres!  It is a glass bead, and currently we think it's Roman but will be consulting with some experts shortly to see what they think.  Well done to the digger who found this tiny object!

This shows the Crambeck mortarium rim, and another fragment. It's very typical of the industry, especially the brown paint used to decorate the rim. Dating around the 3rd & 4th century, it's all the way from Yorkshire.

 

This hulking piece of ceramic is a fragment of tegula - Roman roof tile.  We're finding lots of tile, which also includes flue tile used in hypocaust (Roman central heating) systems.

Some sherds of Roman greyware - archaeologists call this stuff greyware when they aren't sure what it is - it'll eventually get passed to an expert who will know where it was made!