Tag Archives: commercial archaeology

Find of the Month December: Clay Pipe Bowl

Decorated clay pipe bowl

By Cova Escandon, Finds Supervisor

On 27^th of July 1586, Sir Walter Raleigh brought back three unknown weeds from one of his trips to the New World. They were the plants of potato, maize and tobacco.

Although tobacco was most likely to have been known in England before this date through Spanish and Portuguese sailors, Raleigh was the first person to introduce smoking as a fashionable habit in the court of Elizabeth I. Imagine the first time these courtesans saw smoke coming out of someone’s nose and mouth! It is said that one of Raleigh’s servants threw water on him thinking he was on fire. Smoking soon became very popular, and it was even thought to be beneficial to health. It was highly recommended to heal conditions such as worms, halitosis and toothache. Even during the Great Plague (1665) it was thought to clean the air, so schoolboys at Eton College would smoke a pipe at breakfast. But at the beginning of the 17^th Century some voices started speaking against its use. One of them was King James I who wrote a famous text called ‘Counterblast to Tobacco’ where he condemned the use of the aforesaid plant. He also destroyed the crops existing in England and taxed severely the import from America. Despite this, the use of tobacco continued to grow until the 1930s. It was around this time that clay pipe use declined due to competition from cigarettes.

The pipe bowl that we bring to you today was found in Lincoln and made at the Watkinson Clay Pipe Factory in Market Rasen. This factory was founded in 1843 by George Spencer Watkinson and it was very successful until 1893 when wooden pipes started being more popular. Watkinson’s son, George Spencer Watkinson Junior, wrote a journal of his memories of the factory and drew sketches describing the process of making clay pipes. This source of information is priceless as not much is known about this type of factory.

Back in those days, each factory would produce their own designs incorporating the name of the manufacturer or place of production. Our pipe bowl is beautifully decorated with a trophy, possibly related to horse racing, and what appears to be thistles and roses in a laurel crown. On the rim of the bowl you can read MARKET RASEN. Interestingly, we know that the Watkinson Factory often used another design showing a chained slave on one side and the personification of Liberty on the other. This antislavery decoration is highly unusual in the tobacco industry, given its close relationship and dependence on the slavery system.

As you can see in the photograph, the stem of the pipe is missing. We actually often find them with short stems, or none at all, and one reason is that in the second half of the 19^th Century, pubs would provide pipes for their clients to smoke: the customer would break the end of the stem, fill the bowl with tobacco and smoke, returning it to the landlord once he had finished. The next client would break the stem and start again. This artefact not only is a beautiful piece of art, it is also a little window into our past.

“Marion”: The Bourne Head Pot

By Feenagh Johnson, Project Supervisor

At the end of last year, Allen Archaeology (Marine division) undertook a small excavation in the Market Town of Bourne, Lincolnshire.

The site at Bourne

Now I maybe biased, having grown up a mere stone’s throw away, but I already thought the site was pretty exciting… and then this little lady turned up in the first excavated feature. She was covered in mud and in many fragments but enough of her features were visible to identify a face, and it was the unusual form of her hair that gave her the nickname “Marion” (as the frills looked like a medieval headdress).

Finding Marion

A muddy Marion

Although similar to their better known cousins, the face pot, head pots are usually made of a fine fabric with the body of the vessel moulded into the form of human head. Their exact nature is uncertain but it has been postulated that they are ritual vessels, with another notable Lincolnshire example, the “DON MERCVRIO” head pot, being dedicated to the cult of Mercury.

The fully cleaned headpot

However, the Bourne Head pot is unique; she is beautifully hand painted with a distinct hair style and facial features. It’s very possible that the vessel was “made to order” sometime in the 4th century AD, and it would be nice to think that she was modelled after an actual person before being ritually deposited… unfortunately we can only hypothesize!

illustration by C Bentley

Find of the month October – a Roman buckle

Roman buckle

By Yvonne Rose, Archives Supervisor with Mike Wood, Project Manager and Finds Specialist

Our find of the month for October is a rather nice example of a Roman buckle. This type of triangular-shaped buckle dates to the second half of the 4^th century and is found at predominantly military sites in Britain. Indeed, ours was found in Lincoln, just outside the east wall of the Roman city. In this period of history, buckles are still a relatively rare find, much less common than brooches.

The buckle was discovered together with other artefacts in the grave of an adult male. The other associated objects include a crossbow brooch, a small silver mount, a fragment of decorated copper strip which could be part of another brooch, the broken plate of a further buckle, as well as 10 iron nails which may indicate the presence of a coffin. All of these objects are typical of the burials of males from positions of authority in the late Roman Empire.

Buckles with triangular plates are known from both the late Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods. Roman ones usually have openwork plates with D-shaped or, as with ours, kidney-shaped frames; whereas the Saxon ones tend more towards oval frames and solid plates.

The buckle is made from cast copper alloy and measures 50mm in length. The pin is present, as are three copper alloy rivets, one in each corner of the plate. From the junction with the frame, the arms of the plate extend to meet at a cleft terminal lobe with a pointed projection either side. The heart-shaped aperture of this buckle is particularly attractive.

German archaeologist H. W. Böhme studied buckles with integral triangular plates as part of his survey of late Roman artefacts in Britain, and the settlement of England by the earliest Anglo-Saxons (Böhme 1986, Liste 1, Abb. 5, Abb. 14). He dated them to the middle or second half of the 4th century and his map shows that they are found in small numbers not only in the British Isles but also along the European frontier of the Roman Empire, along the Rhine and Danube rivers.

Böhme, H W, 1986, Das Ende der Römerherrschaft in Britannien und die Angelsächische Besiedlung Englands im 5. Jahrhundert, Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz 33 pt. 2

Best site hut biscuit with Chris

Chris cracking the whip as Director (any resemblance to other archaeologists, living or dead, is purely coincidental)

What is your job role?

Director, for my sins

How long have you worked for Allen Archaeology?

Since the beginning…

How would describe your excavation technique?

Rusty

How long have you been working in archaeology?

20 years, there or thereabouts

How did you get into archaeology?

I would probably have to blame Indiana Jones for that one

What is the best thing about your job?

I get to see all the shiny things without having to dig them up

Specialist skills?

Remembering site codes

Best site hut biscuit?

Well it is quite obviously the Bourbon biscuit. No question

Best site hut biscuit with Faith

How long have you worked for Allen Archaeology?

I have been working for the company as a PA for almost a month after completing my 3 month Traineeship through ‘Allen’.

How would describe your excavation technique?

After being given a feature to excavate, I like to ponder at the rather often ambiguous impressions on the ground (if there are any!) to establish a starting point. Or ‘Edge’ as a finicky Archaeologist would like to call it. I then use my trusty trowel and spade to scrape and dig away the mud that is almost identical, but not identical to, the mud surrounding it. Aka the ‘Fill’ and the ‘Cut’. During the time of excavation, I will sometimes over-analyse the hole I’m digging which helps me think about the bigger picture. It’s amazing how much the history and the apparent irony of a muddy hole can teach you!

How long have you been working in archaeology?

4-6 months

How did you get into archaeology?

I wouldn’t leave

What is the best thing about your job?

The awareness that people before you stood where you stand and lived their lives in the same world that would be totally unfamiliar to us.

Specialist skills?

Hawk-eye

Best site hut biscuit?

Caramelised Biscuits

Find of the month: September – a Roman bangle

Roman glass bangle

Yvonne Rose, Archives Supervisor and Mike Wood, Project Manager and Finds Specialist

Our find of the month for September is this spectacular fragment of glass bangle, found in the rather unremarkable setting of a ditch fill in North Lincolnshire.

This is a Kilbride Type 2, named after H. E. Kilbride-Jones who, in 1938, created a detailed typology of early Roman glass bangles. The Type 2 bangles are characterised by having from one to three narrow, twisted cables, generally blue and white, fused lengthwise onto a translucent core, most commonly ice-green or blue, but occasionally colourless. They are usually D-shaped or triangular in section. If it had been complete, our bangle would have had an internal diameter of approximately 60mm.

Bangles of all materials are most common in Britain during the 4th century. The major exception to this are the coloured glass bangles which, by contrast, appear to have been at the height of fashion in the earlier centuries of Roman occupation in Britain. Despite their relatively short lifespan, there are many examples of this type of bangle in the north of England, and even Scotland. Recent work has indicated that this type has been found on several sites north of the Humber in the former Parisi territory. It has been suggested that they may have been manufactured in Roman forts, using raw materials brought over from the continent, and this would explain the spread northwards.

There has been some debate about what precisely these glass rings were used for, and whether all of them were worn as arm or leg ornaments. It has been suggested that some of the broken fragments appear to have had a value as amulets of some sort, with an example found deposited with a cache of stones, fossils and other coloured glass objects in an empty burial cist in a prehistoric cairn at Cairnhill, Aberdeenshire. However, the most commonly accepted theory is that they were used as anklets, armlets, bracelets or possibly even for tying up hair.

Best site hut biscuit with Harvey

What is your job role?

Project Archaeologist working in the Heritage Department. I do desk-based assessments, occasional building surveys, and general GIS work for illustration.

How long have you worked for Allen Archaeology?

About five months at the time of writing.

How would you describe your excavation technique?

Messy unfortunately. I’m better at keeping my desk neat than I am at cleaning up section edges…and my desk isn’t exactly tidy…

How long have you been working in archaeology?

On and off since 2015, starting from the end of my second year of university.

How did you get into archaeology?

I stumbled into it really, and found it a good fit. I was working in a bookshop on the high street looking for something better to do, so on a whim I looked into Hull University and chose archaeology. While I was there I found my way into research projects and volunteering on digs and in museums, then after that I ended up working in geophysics with little bits of excavation here and there on evaluation jobs. It was a really fast trajectory, especially given I didn’t do history or anything similar at GCSE or A-level. Everyone I’ve met in archaeology has been very encouraging, which helps. It’s a very friendly profession.

Archaeology in its natural environment

What is the best thing about your job?

It can push you towards being a bit of a generalist I think, at least it has done in my experience, so it’s a really good excuse to keep buying more and more books (‘I need them for work!’). Being able to keep reading up and applying that knowledge immediately is one of the most rewarding things about archaeology. I like going out on site visits too, there’s nothing like seeing archaeology in its natural environment!

Specialist skills?

Asking questions that lead to more questions rather than answers…so maybe research skills?

Best site hut biscuit?

Fruit shortcake! The little round flowery shaped ones with sugar on top, lovely with a cup of tea. Plus because they’re small you can eat quite a few at once.

Find of the month: August – a prehistoric bead

The shale bead

Yvonne Rose, Archives Supervisor

In 2015 we excavated a very wet site close to the Brayford Pool in Lincoln. One of the finds, which is due to head off to the museum very soon, is this lovely example of a shale bead. It was found during analysis of the samples which was a lucky catch!

The bead has broken down the middle, probably along a natural stress line. Shale is a type of sedimentary rock which is made up of layers and layers of compressed clay and other minerals such as quartz, and as a consequence it can easily laminate along these layers. XRF (X-ray fluorescence) was used to determine the material, as jet and shale can look quite similar. XRF uses X-rays to work out the elemental breakdown of the item; different elements react differently to x-rays and by seeing how the x-rays react, technicians can work out the elemental make up of an object.

The bead is a roughly oval shape with a hole in the centre which has most definitely been drilled. The shape of the hole suggests that it was drilled from both sides rather than straight through from one side. This bead would mostly likely have been one of many on a necklace or other form of strung jewellery. The bead itself doesn’t show any sign of hard wearing suggesting that it was a fairly new bead or necklace, or that it was only worn for special occasions.

This bead was quite difficult to date from its shape alone. Artefacts manufactured from materials such as shale, with its propensity to laminate especially as it dries out, tend not to survive the centuries. This results in an incomplete archaeological record of all the styles and construction methods used throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Age eras, meaning accurate comparison for dating purposes is not always possible. The closest beads in appearance to ours are from a shale and amber necklace from Balmashanner, Angus in eastern Scotland which date from around 800 BC. As you can see from the picture, there are broad similarities to our bead but it’s not quite the same style. From this comparison we can assign a broad date range for our bead to around 1000‒800 BC.

We can have a lovely specimen of a shale bead but without an extensive record collection to compare it, we can only guess to at its age. So keep digging and finding lots more shiny beads!

Best site hut biscuit with Rob

What is your job role?

Geophysics Project Officer

How long have you worked for Allen Archaeology?

6 years and 9 months

How would describe your excavation technique?

Hulk Smash

How long have you been working in archaeology?

6 years and 9 months

How did you get into archaeology?

A long and complicated story involving being a medical student, a holiday entertainer in Cyprus and then finally a stint at Bristol University studying Archaeological Science (mostly playing hockey). That’s very much the short version.

What is the best thing about your job?

Having minions to boss around is certainly a plus, but actually it’s getting out to new sites and through the magic of fluxgate magnetometry getting to be the first person to see archaeological features that have been buried for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Specialist skills?

The ability to continue walking all day every day and cover ridiculous amounts of area whilst surveying in a remarkably short period of time.

Nothing stops Rob’s dedication to walking for geophysics

Best site hut biscuit?

Bourbon. And if you don’t think so, then you’re wrong.