VESSEL

A cast lead alloy vessel repair (pot mend) of Roman date (50-400 AD). The repair is very unusual and complete. It is broadly oval in plan and irregular in cross section. Unlike most pot mends which consist of a single H shaped bar, this example is broadly cruciform in shape with at least two H shaped bars conjoining at right-angles and a third being positioned on a diagonal across one angle. This highly elaborate but functional mend must be to plug a hole in the vessel where a large fragment has been lost - or possibly to mend a strainer or colander which has multiple holes. How this mend has been fitted is another matter as although lead is malleable the way this is fixed would suggest that the pot would have been in several pieces and that multiple other mends would be needed to make the pot whole. Remnants of an oxidised earthenware fabric are present within the mends; this pottery is very similar to the Severn Valley Wares of the 1st -4th centuries AD. The thin nature of the vessel wall would also suggest a Roman date. A direct parallel for this form of mend has not been found, although lead repairs are well documented in vessels from the Roman period.

The vessel repairs measures 50.8mm length, 34.0mm width is 10.7mm thick. The pottery vessel walls are 4.8mm thick. It weighs 62.74 grams