Rights Holder: The Portable Antiquities Scheme
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Unique ID: NMS-E9C30B
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation
Pottery
1. Flagon, fine sandy oxidised with red slip. The unusually thick base may be imitating a metal form. A small iron object or fragment lies within at the base. Weight 267g. Found lying horizontally with the base above no. 10.
2. Globular beaker, Nene Valley colour coated ware, buff with metallic dark red slip, band of reversed S and dot in buff slip. A crack in the base indicates the vessel was fired before being fully dried. Weight 210g. Found lying on its side. Most of the neck and rim missing.
3. Globular narrow-mouthed jar, Brampton-type greyware. Weight 333g. Part of the side (an old break) and part of the rim missing.
4. Narrow-mouthed flask with one handle, Oxfordshire type ware. Weight 188g. The rim and handle are missing (old breaks).
7-9 and 13. Bead and flanged bowl, South Midlands-type shell-tempered ware. Weight 275g. Two joining body sherds (7), two rim sherds (8 and 9) and body sherd (13) on plan. Others fragments, some joining, found near no. 1, unstratified. Less than 50% present.
10a. Dish, Nene Valley greyware, with horizontal burnished lines on sooted exterior. Weight 416g. All of the base, about half of the wall and most of the rim extant (old breaks).
10b. Globular narrow-mouthed jar, Brampton-type greyware. Weight 169. Rim missing (an old break).
12. Wide-mouthed globular jar, Brampton-type greyware. Weight 408g. Soil within contained a jar rim sherd of South Midlands-type shell-tempered ware, part of 14b and 11 (weight 2.8g), and calcined bone fragments (weight 8.9g).
14a. Incomplete upper part of globular jar, Brampton-type greyware. Weight 141g.
14b and 11. Incomplete upper part of jar, South Midlands-type shell-tempered ware. Weight 141g.
15a and 15b. Two incomplete mortaria, white slipped Oxfordshire-type. Weight 389g and 335g. Sherds found scattered north-east of the main deposit. Six unstratified sherds belong to one or both (weight 73g).
Unstratified pottery sherds comprise: one body decorated samian ware from surface of subsoil south of the main deposit (weight 24g); one rim from an Oxfordshire red colour-coated straight-necked beaker (weight 7g); one rim from a third white slipped Oxfordshire-type mortarium (weight 20g); eighteen predominantly Brampton-type greyware (weight 97g); one sandy oxidised (weight 12g); one rim from large jar South Midlands-type shell-tempered ware (weight 15g).
Thanks are due to Alice Lyons for her invaluable help in the indentification of the pottery.
Metal objects
5. Globular lead alloy weight, perhaps a steelyard weight, with an iron suspension loop embedded in the top. Diameter 110-115mm. Height (without loop) 80mm. The object disintegrated while being lifted. Weight c.2kg.
6. Incomplete, distorted and cracked copper alloy pan with part of an iron replacement handle secured with two iron rivets. Diameter c.240mm. A repair of the side is indicated by a three rivet holes near a break and another hole truncated by the break. The exterior surface is heavily sooted. Weight 415g.
16. Concreted mass of iron, copper alloy and pewter objects.
a. Two-pronged and tanged iron pitchfork, one prong missing (old break). Length 358mm. Width 68mm. Weight 362g. Cf. Rees 1979, fig. 252 a and b.
b. Iron rectangular-sectioned hinge bar with two fixing holes (visible on X-ray), one end apparently broken, the other formed into a circular loop. Length 310mm. Width 30mm. Thickness c.10mm. Weight 435g.
c. Incomplete iron sheath of a wooden spade, the lower part of one arm and more than half of the lower edge. Probably Manning 1985, Type 1A. Width 135mm. Height 125mm. Weight 292g.
d. Plano-convex lead weight. Diameter 62mm. Thickness 18mm. Weight 307g. Perhaps for 1 librum (Roman pound), which = c.325g.
e. Iron butteris with a socketed copper alloy handle. The distal end of the U-sectioned blade is missing. The blade is offset below the sub-square sectioned tang which continues forwards to a beak-like terminal and backwards into the handle.
Much engraved decorative detail on the handle is obscured by corroding iron which has burst through the copper alloy along one side. At the open end there are five encircling grooves with oblique grooves forming a cable pattern between two of them. Next to this a sub-triangular moulding edged with a cable pattern supports a short-necked and forward-facing human head, with hair indicated by oblique grooves. The proximal end of the handle is in the form of an eagle with its wings and tail in relief and with the beak forming the terminal. The eyes are engraved and further engraved detail adorns the beak, neck, wings and tail, along with areas of pecking.
Length 223mm. Width 27mm. Thickness (at the anthropomorphic projection) 43mm. Weight 355g.
"The farrier's butteris was used for paring and preparing horses' hooves before shoeing." Many examples are known from Roman Britain and the Continent, some with copper alloy handles (Manning 1985, 61, cat. no. G1). One was recovered from a 2nd-century context at Gorhambury (Neal et al. 1990, 140, fig. 131, no. 404). Another was found in a wooden box along with a castration implement at Chichester. The box had been discarded in the late 3rd to mid 4th century and found its way into a pit of the mid 4th to early 5th (Down 1989, 72, and 201-6, fig. 27.9, nos.15-18). One from near Oundle, Northamptonshire, of sheet over a lead core, terminates in an eagle's head and is surmounted by a bust of Minerva (Webster 1968). The terms buttrice and buttress are also used.
Thanks are due to Ralph Jackson who made the initial identfication and offered great bibliographical assistance.
f. Unidentified copper alloy sheet object, perhaps an offcut, roughly rectangular with two straight, on convex and one concave side, c.140 x c.140mm. The corner between the latter two has been removed by a part-circular cut-out, diameter 75mm. Weight 62g.
g. Neatly chopped approximate half of a plano-convex lead weight. Diameter c.88mm. Thickness 29mm. Weight 677g. Perhaps for 2 libra (c.650g).
h. Iron L-clamp with half of the head missing, a piece of structural ironwork, cf. Manning 1985, 132, cat. no. R73. Length 215mm. Extant width 148mm. Width 265mm. Weight 906g.
i. Copper alloy skillet handle, flat with a slightly expanded proximal end. The sides flare before the jaggedly broken other end. Length 153mm. Maximum thickness 45mm. Thickness 2.2mm. Weight 59g.
j. Iron mattock or combination axe-adze. The axe blade is of Manning 1985 Type 4. Below the ovoid or sub-rectangular eye there is a short collar. The adze blade is straight. It is noteworthy that the edges of both blades run in straight lines from one cutting edge to the other. Decayed material adhering to one face of the axe blade may have been organic, perhaps leather. Length 275mm. Width (the cutting edge of the adze) 74mm. Weight 1.608kg.
k. Incomplete lower part of the iron sheath of a wooden spade. Probably Manning 1985, Type 1A. Width 125mm. Weight 268g.
l. Iron axe of Manning 1985 Type 4. Length 185mm. Width 60mm. Thickness (at cutting edge) 77mm. Weight 2.280kg.
m. Fragments of a badly decayed pewter object of unknown form.
n. Iron sickle, concreted with chain o, combined weight 3.3kg.
o. Iron adjustable cauldron hanger. This remains attached to n and in a folded state. One terminal hook is missing, cf. Manning 1985, fig. 27. Only one small length of twisting is visible.
17. Roman coin found below 1. and near 5. Copper alloy nummus, House of Valentinian, reverse SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE, mintmark and further details illegible, AD364-78.
18. Roughly circular plano-convex lead alloy cake, diameter c.87 - c.94mm, thickness 26mm. Weight 665g. Found below the centre of 16.
This has been noted as an interesting find by the recorder.
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Broad period: ROMAN
Period from: ROMAN
Period to: ROMAN
Date from: Circa AD 370
Date to: Circa AD 409
Quantity: 29
Date(s) of discovery: Tuesday 29th September 2015 - Tuesday 29th September 2015
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SMR reference number: 60462
Other reference: JE092015
Primary material: Ceramic
Secondary material: Iron
Completeness: Incomplete
No references cited so far.