2018 Ancaster Fieldwork Season - Update 1

Whilst archaeologists don't exactly hibernate over the winter, we do prefer good weather and reasonable temperatures before we venture out to do our work. So it is that the rather late arrival of some proper spring weather has tempted us back onto site at Ancaster to continue our excavations of the Roman-British remains to the south of the town.

In previous seasons we have revealed a well constructed road dating to the RB period in two phases leading from Ermine street to (we think) the Lady Well; a natural spring which is believed to be what first drew the Iron Age settlers to this location. We have subsequently found that the road is bounded on its southern side by a large ditch - probably an earlier boundary ditch dating to the late Iron Age or early RB period. It is this ditch and its associated features which are forming the focus of our work so far this year.

 

As the photograph (from Trench 11) shows there are likely a number of phases to the ditch which is cut into the underlying post-glacial sands. Once the ditch had undergone substantial infilling and at least one recut, it was replaced or augmented by a wall, perhaps one of two delineating the sides of the road, the basal remains of which can be seen in the photograph about 1m above the ditch bottom.

In other trenches the wall is far more substantial and appears to have served a second function which is to prevent colluvial creep into the ditch and onto the road. The photograph below shows the wall in Trench 6

Finds from within the lowest levels of the ditch help to date it to the late Iron Age or Early RB period. 

Looking from the inside of a late IA or Early RB vessel. We have recovered almost the complete pot from within the boundary ditch.  

 

An imported vessel probably made in northern Gaul in the 1st century AD. 

The wall appears to date to the late 1st century AD again based on pottery and some metalwork found in association with the rubble. We will have more photos of these finds in future blogs. 

Work continues at Ancaster this coming Friday and Saturday and all members are welcome to come and take part. If you are not a member and fancy coming over to take a look at what we are doing then let me know and I will provide directions.  

  

Find of the year?

I had already started a blog post which would have covered the first few days of our 2018 fieldwork season at Ancaster House. In truth I had not got that far with it but it will eventually appear - probably in a couple of days.

The reason I am pushing it to one side for the moment is that my good neighbour Jules Turner came round a few minutes ago bringing with him what, for me, might be the find of the year - and we are only in our first week or so.

He had been walking the dog in the meadow and had spotted something on the spoil heap from the trench containing the large late Iron Age/Early RB ditch which runs along the side of the Roman road.

To those who are not into Roman pottery it may not seem very much. But it is a rare insight into the Roman mind and the value they placed on their most precious possessions.

It is a small piece of high status pottery - Samian Ware - which will have been imported from central Gaul, probably sometime in the second half of the first century AD. We are fairly sure of this date because we have other pottery and brooches from the same context which helps to date the horizon.

This would have been a valuable piece of ceramic. So much so that when it got broken the owner didn't just throw it away as we would today. Of course there was no superglue, no means of sticking the vessel back together. But rather than just dumping it the owner decided to get it repaired - they either did it themselves or, more likely, got someone else - a craftsman - to do it.

They carefully drilled holes in the broken pot (at least 2 holes in this piece as you can see the remains of another hole on the other side of the sherd.) and they used lead to form a clasp or rivet to hold the pieces of pot together.

We have found at least one other piece of Samian on the site which had a rivet hole in it but I never thought we would find one which still had the lead clasp attached.

At some later date the vessel was broken for a second time and thrown away - indeed the break running through he second hole might indicate that that was the source of the later failure. We will never know.

But this is a very rare insight into how the Romans valued such pottery and the lengths to which they were willing to go to save such a valuable item.