VESSEL

Two Roman ceramic sherds, most likely representing two Black Burnished ware (BB1, from Wareham/Poole harbour, Dorset) vessels, dating c. AD 1-410.

The first sherd is a rim sherd, probably from a storage jar, it has a rounded vertical rim with a slight groove at its base and rounded walls. A hard fired grey/black fabric, incompletely fired, with a thin black band at its centre. The interior surface is slightly oxidised and is a dark brown, whilst only the exterior surface has been burnished. Abundant sub-rounded translucent quartz inclusions, <1mm. The lack of internal burnishing suggests that this is a storage vessel rather than bowl, and the profile fits Seager Smith & Davies' (1993:236-237) form 47 storage jar, dating to AD 1-410.

The second sherd is a flat base sherd with possible external burnishing lacking any internally, again suggesting a storage vessel. Hard fired pale grey fabric with oxidised internal surface and base. Very abundant sub-angular to sub-rounded translucent quartz inclusions, <1.5, mixed through the fabric is a fairly regular band of patches of paler yellow/brown material, thought to probably represent a variation in the firing of the clay.

Sherd 1: Length: 36.4mm, Width: 42.1mm, Thickness: 4.8mm, Weight: 13.83g.
Sherd 2: Length: 33.6mm, Width: 52.5mm, Thickness: 10.8mm, Height: 14.3mm, Weight: 17.22g.