VESSEL

An assemblage of 137 Roman ceramic Black Burnished Ware vessel sherds dating to the period c. AD 43 - 410. The assemblage comprises 39 rim sherds, 92 body sherds and 6 base sherds. Two fabrics appear to be represented:

c. 80% of the assemblage is Black Burnished Ware Fabric 1 (BB1). The fabric is a reduced black shading to dark grey in colour, with some sherds exhibiting oxidised buff or pinkish-orange patches. It has abundant translucent rounded quartz, occasional iron and flint and very occasional shale temper.

c. 20% of the assemblage comprises South Western Variant Black Burnished Ware Fabric (1B). The fabric is a reduced black shading to dark grey, with some sherds exhibiting oxidised buff-pink patches and/or sandwich firing. It has a sandy texture and exhibits abundant rounded translucent quartz and mica temper with occasional iron and flint inclusions.

Although a large proportion of the sherds are too fragmentary to identify, a number of the larger sherds of BB1 are of recognisable forms as follows:

1 WA Type 2 cooking pot storage jar with everted rim. The shoulder neck and rim show evidence of burnishing, below which is a band of decoration comprising an incised acute lattice pattern. (See Seager-Smith, R, 1993, p.230, fig. 122, Type 2.)

4 sherds of WA Type 20 "dog-dish" (Ibid, p. 232, fig. 123, Type 20.) with straight sides and a plain rim.

Approximately 5% of the sherds exhibit decoration in the form of an incised lattice pattern. Both acute and obtuse lattice patterns are represented in the assemblage, indicating a broad date range. Examples of decoration occur on sherds from both fabrics.

Of the rim sherds present in the assemblage not discussed above, 11 exhibit slightly everted or everted rims, 1 rim is very everted. 12 sherds exhibit plain rims, 1 rim is beaded, 4 sherds exhibit a flanged rim and 3 exhibit a dropped flange.