Butt Road car-park site: continuing work on the Roman pottery

Today (6th January), Trust archaeologist Steve Benfield was working on Roman pottery from the Butt Road car-park site, which we excavated in late 2012, not far from Roman Circus House. Steve is the Trust’s Roman pottery specialist, and today he was engaged in various tasks relating to the pottery from the site. He worked with some of the Trust’s archaeology volunteers, who wash and label all our pottery vessels and fragments, and he also selected pottery to be drawn by Trust archaeologist Emma Holloway for inclusion in our report on the excavation. He updated the pottery spot-dating lists, which will be used to write the main site report, and he continued working on the more detailed pottery record which he will use to write the report’s section on the pottery. Pottery is important in archaeology, as it is used to date features and to produce the dating sequence of a site. Steve studies a pottery vessel or even a fragment of pottery and can usually identify its fabric, the form of the vessel, its place of origin, and a date or date-range for its manufacture.

In the Butt Road car-park excavation, we uncovered a Roman cemetery which included some remarkable elements, such as a rare bustum burial and a group of graves within a small fenced enclosure. Many of the burials included pottery vessels and there was a large number of whole vessels from the site. Most of the vessels – from the cremation burials – have been dated to the 1st-2nd centuries, with others – from the inhumation burials – being dated to the 3rd-4th centuries. These vessels were mostly used as a container for the cremated remains of a deceased individual, although some were ancillary vessels which had been buried with the remains, and some vessels were from inhumation burials. Some of the cremation ‘urns’ had been buried with other vessels, like bowls, which functioned as their lids. The ancillary vessels in the burials were flagons, beakers and dishes which had probably been buried holding food and drink for the deceased. The vessels used as cremation urns are all jars. Much of the pottery was made in Colchester. The Trust’s archaeology volunteers also excavate the contents of the cremation urns, at Roman Circus House.

The images show Steve at his desk today with two small flagons from the Butt Road car-park site, and a sheet from his pottery record.

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