Tuesday, May 15, 2007

One Iron Age Sherd



The only type of pottery I can reliably identify, because of the guidance of experts, is late Iron Age "local coarse ware". It is good to have at least one point of reference.

The photo above shows the latest single piece from Test Pit 2. It was found at level 4, which is normally the case. It is a rim piece that I've scanned to show the colour and nature of the fabric with its white inclusions.

I've no doubt that the presence of this type of pottery represents late Iron Age settlement in the immediate vicinity. The presence of copious amounts of this type of pottery in a previous dig, below, alongside and above pottery from the Roman era, suggest a continuation of use of the coarse ware either side of Romanisation.

1 comment:

Tileman said...

The sherd illustrated looks like calcite gritted ware
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbmphil/462700816/

(Tomber and Dore 1998 Hun CG)
which is used for jars in the Iron age, and through the roman period, where it becomes increasingly common in the late Roman period (in an apparent de-Romanising movement) where its most popular forms are Huntcliff type jars and wide mouth jars. Interesting the Saxon pottery of the region tends to be quartz, mica or feldspar – so a tradition of pottery sourcing for over a thousand years comes to a halt.
http://www.potsherd.uklinux.net/atlas/nrfrc/index.php?order=nrfrc