TILE

An incomplete Roman ceramic Lowther's Group 1 and Betts Die 58, relief-patterned flue-tile dating from AD 150-200. A similar tile is illustrated in Betts et al (1997:53 Fig.27a). The front is decorated with relief-patterned rolled design in the "W. Chevron" group style. Betts writes "Keyed with wooden rollers applied when the clay was still damp, before they were put into the kiln to fire. This was added so the tiles could be more firmly mortared into place." The fabric is fully oxidised and red throughout. Betts et al (1997:120) write " Context dating: at Winchester Palace example 11 was found in the demolition debris of Building 14 which has a terminus post quem of AD 150-250 and was demolished c 287 or later (B. Yule pers. comm.). Circumstantial dating: the earliest phase of the bath-suite at Pudding Lane (example 3) is dated mid 2 cent, and this may have been altered to a different use early in the third cent., again becoming a bath-suite after AD 370 (Milne 1985, 139-41). The similarity between the designs of dies 35 and 58, and a re-cut seems possible. If this was the case, since the pattern of die 58 is longer than that of die 35, die 58 will have been the earlier die."

McComish (2015:12) writes "Box flues (tubuli) are hollow rectangular or square cross-sectioned tiles, with sanded interior surfaces, and they have vents in two opposing sides, while the other two sides are usually keyed. The keying can be incised, finger drawn, combed, or relief-patterned. There is no standard size for box flue tiles nationally (ibid., 74). Box flues were made by wrapping a slab of clay around a sanded former then joining the edges of the clay together with a single seam, and the vents were cut out after the tile was removed from the former (Rudling et al. 1986, 204)."

Dimensions: length: 66.97mm; width: 61.29mm; thickness: 18.18mm; weight: 71.82g.

Betts et al (1997:52) write "London still has the biggest concentration of individual examples and different die patterns, and it is the tile kilns located near London, such as Ashtead, Surry, Brockley Hill, Middlesex and Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, which probably formed the chief production centres for the manufacture of relief-patterned tile in south-east England."

Other box flue-tiles on the database are LON-E4384A, LON-6D895E, PUBLIC-29D515 and LON-1582B3.

Reference: Betts I., Black E. W.A and Gower J. 1997. Journal of Roman Pottery Studies Vol. 7. Corpus of Relief-Patterned Tiles in Roman Britain. Oxbow books, Oxford

McComish J.M., 2015. A Guide to Ceramic Building Materials. Report Number 2015/36, York Archaeological Trust.