studying Roman pottery from the Butt Road car-park site

Yesterday (25th February), Trust archaeologist Stephen Benfield was working on some of the Roman pottery from the Butt Road car-park site, which we finished excavating on the 25th January. Steve is the Trust’s Roman pottery specialist, although he has also now extended his area of expertise into pre-Roman pottery.

The pottery vessels and fragments are washed and labelled by our team of volunteers, and then Steve quantifies and catalogues them. Some of the pottery is examined in detail, to work out the fabric, vessel form, date and place of origin. Pottery is very important in archaeology, however fragmentary, as accurate pottery dating allows the detailed stratification and dating of a site.

The images show Steve in the upstairs office at Roman Circus House yesterday, working on some of the Roman pottery.
The complete flagon is a very unusual barrel-shaped example, made of local white ware. It was probably made in Colchester and probably dates to the 2nd century. It was found with a burial.
The fragments are from a jar made of local grey ware. It was also probably made in Colchester and it probably dates to the 1st-2nd century.

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