Category Archives: Archive

Romans, Remembrance and Ritual

By Isobel Curwen, Heritage Research Supervisor (and osteologist on the side)

Warning: images of human remains feature in this post

Last month, we were invited by the International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC) to take part in their ‘Hands on History’ event as part of National Tourism Week. This event saw many attractions within Lincoln (and the UK) open their doors for free!

So on a sunny Saturday morning at the beginning of April I find myself arriving at the IBCC carrying a box containing the remains of a decapitated Roman individual (SK 1026). Luckily I didn’t get too many strange looks…

Wondering why? During 2014 – 2016 Allen Archaeology were involved in the excavation work prior to the IBCC and the memorial Spire being built. Early geophysical investigations had identified several anomalies within the area which were then investigated by a series of excavations in the location of the IBCC building and spire, the car park and the access road off Canwick Hill (Evershed, 2014).

During the course of the archaeological works on the site, the excavations revealed the remains of three Roman pottery kilns, two corn dryers, and 15 Roman burials, dated to the 2^nd to 3^rd centuries. Several possible quarry pits and linear ditches were also found. The final report is forthcoming, and will be published in due course, but preliminary analysis of the results of the archaeological investigations suggest that the site was formerly a self-sufficient Roman settlement complete with corn dryers and ditches marking the boundaries of the settlement. It is thought that the quarry pits were used to mine for limestone, a readily accessible resource which was used to build many parts of Roman Lincoln. The geographical location of the site, on high ground within close proximity to the city was also an important factor.

Interestingly, the graves were found on a variety of alignments and one individual was found with the head and some of the cervical vertebrae between the legs (suggesting they were decapitated), and another individual was found buried prone (face down). Burials of this type are occasionally found in Roman cemeteries and are referred to as ‘deviant’ burials.

So, bearing all this in mind, the event at the IBCC was Roman themed and I took along the individual that had been decapitated as well as plans and photographs of the site during the excavation. I laid out the individual in the way they were found in the grave and got many questions as to why I had put the head by the feet! I secretly enjoyed the look on people’s faces when I told them why…

It was a busy day and we had around 90 people visit. Personally, it was a great experience to be able to explain to people that the IBCC, now a focus for Bomber Command during WWII, was once a Roman settlement. Even more exciting was to be able to be showing an individual that was found beneath the building we were actually standing in!

Many thanks to Cova, Yvonne, Harvey and Chris for their help in the preparation of this exhibition and on the day itself too! Thanks also go to Emily from the IBCC for organising the event and for asking us to be involved.

Evershed, R., 2014, Archaeological Evaluation Report – Geophysical survey by magnetrometry for the proposed Bomber Command Memorial and Interpretation Centre, Canwick Hill, Canwick, Lincolnshire, Allen Archaeology Ltd

Best site hut biscuit with Tash

It’s been an exciting and busy time at AAL and after a short hiatus the blog is now back up and running, starting with a little bit about Tash Brett, Project Archaeologist!

What is your job role?

Project Archaeologist

How long have you worked for Allen Archaeology?

Almost 2 years

How would describe your excavation technique?

If in doubt, wack it out!

How long have you been working in archaeology?

Overall 5 or so years

How did you get into archaeology?

Through Operation Nightingale. I volunteered on their site on Salisbury Plain and have loved it ever since. No one can say their first dig was an Anglo-Saxon burial ground!

What is the best thing about your job?

Seeing all the wonderful finds that come through the office and learning how to differentiate between different types of pottery.

Specialist skills?

I have a couple of years of archiving experience, and I do enjoy that type of work and can do it pretty well, so I would say that might be my main skill in archaeology.

Best site hut biscuit?

Depends on the weather – right now it’s sunny so could happily go for a bourbon!

‘A cooler than average sedimentary rock’

As part of studying for my degree in Conservation at the University of Lincoln I took the opportunity to work on placement at Allen Archaeology. I was keen to work with Allen after my interest in archaeology was sparked during my second year studies at a time where I was working on excavated Anglo-Saxon burial finds. I’ll admit however, like (most) archaeologists I have now met, I was initially exposed to archaeology through watching countless episodes of ‘Time Team’ as a child with my father!

So for six weeks I have been diving into a world of pottery, CBM, human remains, tonnes of mud, and of course plenty of tea and biscuits. The majority of my time has been spent ensuring that the site finds have been sufficiently cleaned along with marking and repackaging them ready for archiving and dispatch onto various museums. One type of find that I have found particularly interesting while working here is flint, which I really enjoyed getting the chance to examine and research further into.

Invasively worked ‘knife’

Flint is a cooler than average sedimentary rock and a form of the mineral quartz. It was an invaluable material through the majority of the prehistoric period. Flint has a unique cryptocrystalline molecular structure which is what makes it so hard and durable, and when this stone is struck, it fractures easily and cleanly into uniform flakes with a very sharp edge, capable of even cutting flesh. It’s definitely a clear winner over other kinds of rock which just break uselessly. Plus, the stone-age folk didn’t want to labour away wasting time and resources crafting a tool out of a softer rock that wouldn’t even be able to last! They realised that flint was tough enough to be used over and over, but was also workable, breaking predictably, allowing skilled, reliable tool making techniques to emerge.

A site of Allen’s in Norfolk yielded many lithic artefacts and tools which I got to inspect, including an ‘end and side scraper’ and an ‘invasively flaked knife’. Flint tools come in numerous variations such as scrapers, knives, arrowheads, piercers, awls, microliths and many more, which were used in all matter of tasks through day to day life.

Upon close examination, both the scraper and knife show signs of reworking in the form of tiny uniform chips along several edges, along with rippling which radiates like shock waves from the original strike point. These features distinguish them from naturally occurring flint and allow us to determine that they were in fact modified by ancient man. The function of a scraper tool was likely for stripping fat from skins in hide working or for working wood, and could have been either held by hand or attached to a handle. Similarly, a knife may have been used for cutting through flesh or simply as a multipurpose tool.

Flint scraper

These finds, which appear to have been manufactured during the late Neolithic, give a fascinating insight into what life in the period was like. Archaeology allows us to reconnect with our past and for me it’s a privilege to handle objects such as these which may have once served as crucial elements of survival. I personally love to speculate about the life and story behind archaeological finds and envision our younger world and its people. It makes it all very real!

This placement has definitely reinforced my passion for the subject, and I and can’t wait to further my knowledge and experiences.

Our Volunteering Experience

By Roksana P. Drobinoga and Louise Wood

We have just finished our first year on the BA Conservation of Cultural Heritage degree course at the University of Lincoln and decided to do some volunteering work during the summer break to improve our knowledge of areas related to the conservation field and to see what happens to the objects before they get to the specialists.

On our first day we started with the Archive Supervisor, Yvonne Rose, explaining what happens to the objects when they arrive from the sites currently being excavated. We were given a tour of the building and shown the offices, the artefact processing room where the objects are cleaned and placed in trays according to their site codes and context numbers, and the drying room where the artefacts are left on designated shelves and in appropriate environmental conditions. We were also shown a number of artefacts which have already been processed and are in storage; for example, Saxon brooches and Roman hair pins. Later, objects are numbered and bagged ready to be given to the archive supervisor to be catalogued before being sent to specialists for further examination.

Our role was finds processing which meant that we were responsible for cleaning the artefacts after they had arrived from site, marking them once they were dry, and bagging them in preparation for cataloguing. We have learnt that each type of material has to be treated differently. For example, you cannot mark shell or human bone and you cannot wash metal objects. We now have a better understanding of the marking/numbering and cataloguing processes.

Roksana (left) and Louise (right) cleaning objects in the artefacts processing room

Our experience with Allen Archaeology has been educational and informative and it was fascinating to handle objects that have been hidden away for hundreds of years! It was interesting to meet some of the archaeologists, hear their stories and learn about their work. In the future, when we receive historic artefacts to work on as part of our course or careers, we will know how much the object has been through and how many people have been involved before it reaches us.

Weekly Round-up

Following on from yesterday’s ‘Ask and Archaeologist’ day we thought we’d do a little office round up to give you an insight into what our staff have been working on this week!

Our Finds and Archive Department have been busy this week preparing finds for archive deposition and preparing material to go off to the relevant specialists. We have also had a number of volunteers come to work with us from the University of Lincoln over the past month and this week we welcomed Roksana and Louise who have been washing various finds from some of our recent sites and marking the pottery ready for archive deposition.

Roksana and Louise marking some pottery from a recent site

The head of our geophysics team, Rob, has been doing some digitisation for a large linear infrastructure site in Lincolnshire as well as doing a watching brief in a small village just outside Lincoln. Mia, one of our Project Supervisors, has been busy working on some building recording reports for a range of sites in Lancashire and Cambridgeshire.

Rob of our Geophysics team looking very studious!

The Heritage Research Team (affectionately known as Heritage HQ) have been working on a variety of desk-based assessments for sites in Nottinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, and Lancashire. Heritage team member Harvey has been out visiting sites in Cambridgeshire and Nottinghamshire and has discovered some interesting cropmarks just outside of the Cambridgeshire Archives at Shire Hall which relate to the site of the old county prison. He thought it might have been a Roman building associated with a known Roman settlement to the north. Better luck with your interpretation next time Harvey, it happens to the best of us! Thanks to the effect of the hot weather on the ground, a lot of cropmarks have now become clearly visible across the UK.

Possible cropmarks visible outside of the Cambridgeshire Archives

And of course, our field teams have been busy across the country! With sites in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Suffolk, and Cambridgeshire (amongst others!) our field archaeologists have been working hard to excavate and record an array of archaeological features. We’ve also had some great finds from our sites this week, including some complete Roman vessels from a site in Lincolnshire!

Our field team having fun on site in Leicestershire

So it has been a busy week for us all here at Allen Archaeology and with the food festival coming to Lincoln this weekend I’m sure a few of our staff will be visiting!

Find of the Month, June – Roman graffiti and stamped pottery

Written by Cova Escandon (Project Supervisor, Archives)

This month has brought us some very lovely finds including some stamped pottery and roman graffiti from a site in Staffordshire!

Graffiti was common in Roman times and was probably considered a type of self-expression. In Pompeii, more than eleven thousand examples have been unearthed. The graffiti covered all sorts of subjects, from mockery, poems, love declarations, puns, political propaganda, advertising for rent, and prostitutes… even announcements like a reward for returning a copper pot stolen from a shop! There are also numerous examples of what seems to be people practising alphabet letters or sentences in order to learn to write or improve their skills, a sensible idea considering paper was very expensive, and walls were free!

As well as graffiti, pottery was sometimes marked with a stamp. This was sometimes done as the pottery was loaded into the kiln, often as they were of communal use. Since the work was standardized and stylistically homogeneous, a record was kept of the number of ceramics loaded into the kiln. This could also be recorded on a plate baked with the rest of pottery. It is also possible that the ceramicist wanted to sign their work. Here are a few examples of stamped mortaria and stamped samian ware, recently excavated from a site in Staffordshire. The stamp on the mortarium sherd is an example of the work of the potter Brucius or Bruccius who is believed to have been based at Brockley Hill during the period AD 80-100 (Fiske 2018). It can be closely paralleled with an example from Gorse Stacks in Chester (Cuttler et al 2012, Fig. 2.22.61; M2).

The samian ware stamp is believed to read ‘AVSTRIM’.

Stamped mortaria from a site in Staffordshire

Stamped samain ware an excavation in Staffordshire

Stamped samian ware from a site in Staffordshire

In graffiti, the inscription was made by scratching into the wet clay with a pointed tool. It is written in Roman Cursive Script, the everyday form of handwriting. It would be used by merchants keeping business records, children learning to write, and quick informal text. It was most commonly used between the 1^st Century BC and the 3^rd Century AD and was often used to provide a description of the contents of the pot!

We think it possibly reads as ‘ulvia’ – what are you interpretations?

Roman amphora with grafito inscription from a site in Staffordshire

Many thanks to H. G. Fiske for providing a written interpretation of the stamped mortarium sherd (Fiske 2018).

Cuttler, R., Hepburn, S., Hewitson, C. and Krawiec, K., 2012, Gorse Stacks – 2000 Years of Quarrying and Waste Disposal in Chester, BAR British Series 563, Birmingham Archaeology Series No. 13

An introduction to finds processing and conservation

By Lucie (Volunteer from the University of Lincoln)

I’m currently studying for a degree in Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Lincoln and have just finished my second year. As part of the course I have to do a six week work placement to gain some experience of working in the world of conservation, and as I hope to specialise in archaeological conservation when I graduate, I chose to come to Allen Archaeology. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to not only see how a commercial archaeology company works but also to get some hands-on experience.

I’ve been working in the finds department, processing the finds which involves cleaning bags and bags of objects that have come from the various sites that the company are excavating. So far this has mostly comprised sherds of pottery and animal bones along with a few iron nails and pieces of ceramic building material (CBM). Once the finds are clean and dry they are marked and repackaged in labelled bags ready to be archived.

However, it’s not all been bits of broken pottery. I was lucky enough to be given a large Iron Age bowl to work on that had been excavated from one of the sites and was still encased in the clay soil from which it had come from. I carefully removed the soil layer by layer using various tools from my conservation tool kit to ensure there was nothing else within the soil and also to ensure that I didn’t cause any damage.

Conservation of the Iron Age pot in progress

Details of the ‘slash-ware’ start to emerge!

Once as much of the soil as possible had been removed and the pot had had a chance to dry out a little I washed the remaining soil off it using a toothbrush and left it to dry thoroughly. After it had been cleaned there was a pattern visible on the outer surface which is apparently called slash-ware because it looks like it has been slashed. To be one of the first people to see it since it went into the ground is a real thrill and for me, part of the excitement of working with archaeological finds.

Pottery sherds after conservation

I’m really enjoying my time here, getting to be hands on with the finds is great and to be given objects that are thousands of years old to clean is a dream come true for me as this is a job I have wanted to do since I was young.

Find of the Month, May – Early Neolithic arrow head

By Cova Escandon, Archives Project Supervisor

This month we have chosen this beauty! It is an Early Neolithic leaf-shaped arrow head and it comes from a site we are currently working on in Grantham.

Early Neolithic leaf-shaped arrow head from a site in Grantham

Arrow heads were manufactured by using a small antler tine to push tiny pieces off a bigger stone; a technique known as pressure-flaking. They were then used as projectile points mounted on the tip of a wooden shaft. We are not sure if they were propelled by a bow or were part of a spear as wooden artefacts don’t survive very often.

These leaf-shaped arrow heads dominated the Early Neolithic era (4,000-3,200BC), becoming less common in the Mid Neolithic and scarce in Late Neolithic. Later arrow heads followed designs with ‘barbs’, that made them more effective, but these leaf-shaped ones were easier to make.

Some are incredibly thin and delicate, too fragile to be used for hunting or violence, and some scholars believe that they were status symbols, as they required an immense amount of skill to make. But it is not that simple, as some of these very delicate arrow heads show traces of having been used…

But why do these Early Neolithic groups start manufacturing these new arrow heads? The Neolithic Revolution had begun! The clearance of the woodland in order to get it ready for harvesting had drastically changed the environment, and it was more difficult for the hunter to get close to the prey. One theory suggests that this type of arrow head offered a more aerodynamic and effective killing tool with an increased range and penetration.

This alteration of the environment was already happening during the Mesolithic. But the Neolithic saw massive deforestation to make room for farmland, dramatically transforming the landscape.

This Neolithic Revolution not only brought economic and technological change, it also saw deep social transformation. Knapping tools changed from being a survival skill learnt by everyone, to an artisan trade done by specialists in the community. The groups settled in territories, and the foundations of new social hierarchies were established.

The attachment to the land brought an increase in violence as control of the territory was key in order to survive.

Examples of these bloody episodes have been seen at archaeological sites such as Belas Knap Long Barrow in Gloucestershire and Wayland’s Smithy in Oxfordshire, where there is evidence of blows to the head or arrow wounds in dead deposited there, and at Hambledon Hill in Dorset, there is evidence of the defensive palisades being burnt. Leaf-shaped arrow heads are the most commonly found artefact in British Neolithic tombs. As usual, we end up with more questions than answers. Why did society change? Farming requires much more work than hunting-gathering and one so why did they change their way of living?

Whilst Britain was still in the Late Mesolithic, a big part of Southern Europe was already embracing the Neolithic Revolution. Can we attribute the beginning of the Neolithic in the UK to sea-borne colonialists from continental Europe, or to the influence of locals who were in touch with the continent?

This is certainly a beautiful artefact, no doubt about that. But it is also a window to a fascinating and mysterious time of change.

Our digital era

By Isobel Curwen (Heritage Research Team)

For centuries we have been leaving a written record of our daily lives and when we find evidence of this it is very exciting. Recent excavations in London uncovered a significant collection of Roman waxed writing tablets, some of the earliest hand-written documents found in Britain (for more information visit the MOLA website), and we have even earlier records such as prehistoric cave art and runic writing systems.

Our Finds team are currently analysing some stamped Roman pottery found in Lincolnshire. Mortaria and Samian ware are the most common pottery types to be stamped, although other types of Roman pottery were occasionally stamped too. The stamp could be a name or a word, or sometimes a symbol, possibly suggesting that the potter was illiterate (Read our blog post by Alice for some examples of stamped pottery found in Lincoln). In order to create the impression on the pot, the stamp had to be created in relief and in reverse which requires considerable skill (see how quickly you can spell your own name backwards!).

Stamped mortaria found from Lincoln - see the range of potters marks from symbols to words

Stamped Mortaria found from Lincoln – see the range of potters markings including both symbols and words

Roman grey ware pot base with a pot firing ‘X’ graffito that has been trimmed to form a disc or counter (Photo Credit Hugh Fiske/Ian Rowlandson)

These lovely sherds of stamped pottery have survived for thousands of years and this got us thinking. In today’s digital world what record will we leave of our own lives? Handwritten letters have been replaced by emails and text messages. Digital mapping and GPS render paper maps obsolete, used only when technology fails us or when there is a lack of signal. In our on-site recording of archaeological sites we use a combination of physical and digital recording techniques. With recent advances in archaeological practice suggesting and implementing systems for entirely paperless recording systems (Roosevelt et al. 2015) we are heading in the direction of an almost entirely digital historic record.

It looks like the record we leave about our lives will be less tangible and physical than that of our predecessors. Read the following article for more information on our digital footprints.

Christopher H. Roosevelt, Peter Cobb, Emanuel Moss, Brandon R. Olson &
Sinan Ünlüsoy (2015) Excavation is Destruction Digitization: Advances in Archaeological Practice,
Journal of Field Archaeology, 40:3, 325-346