Tag Archives: small finds

Find of the Month, September

by Cova Escandon (Archive Supervisor)

An unusual set of jewellery was found from the grave of an adolescent individual from a Roman Necropolis in Lincolnshire, dated to the 4^th century AD. The grave good assemblage is made up of a group of copper-alloy, bone and iron bangles, along with a copper-alloy chain, glass beads and one copper-alloy ring.

Bracelets made of all types of materials were most common in Britain during the 4^th Century AD, and had been used by the Romano-British elite since early Roman times, often fabricated with precious metals. However, around the time of the 4^th Century AD, the use of these bangles became more common in the general population with materials such as bone or copper alloy used instead of precious metals. Such bangles were often worn with between six and sixteen bangles on both wrists. This practice would explain the large amount of fragments of metal bangles found in domestic contexts from the late Roman period. In the set found by Allen Archaeology, there were also several fragments of bone bangles which became very popular during the 4^th century.

Eight copper alloy bracelets were discovered within the grave, all in different styles, three of them decorated. Such decoration includes an incised decoration of a repeating pattern of III X III, and on other bangles motifs including a wavy line with associated dots, faint cross-hatching, and a ring and dot design can be seen. Interestingly, this ring and dot pattern is also present on one of the bone fragments, suggesting that this group of metal and bone bangles were designed to be worn together.

III X III decoration on copper alloy bangle

Ring and dot detail on the copper alloy bangle

Three of the bone fragments have holes drilled through one end and one fragment also has an iron rivet still attached. Two other fragments are joined together by a thin copper-alloy plate, suggesting that these bangles could have been made in sections and then attached together.

I always find curating these sort of finds a little bit bittersweet. On one hand they are very pretty and interesting artefacts, highly useful in being able to date the burial. But on the other side, they remind us that what we have in front of us is a human being, carefully buried with personal items.

Find of the month March – a selection of finds chosen by our work experience student, Matt.

By Matt and Yvonne Rose (Archive Project Supervisor)

For February, just for a change, there’s a slight twist to “Find of the Month”. For the past three Thursdays the finds and archiving team has been joined by work experience student Matt. He’s been busy washing the usual assortment of pottery, tile and animal bone, so to make the days more interesting we’ve shown him an array of the more exciting finds from past excavations. We asked him to choose two of his favourite finds, along with a few other questions, so that we could find out a bit more about Matt and his interests. Here are the results:

How long have you been interested in archaeology?

Since I was around 7 years of age (10 years ago).

How did you become interested in archaeology?

I became interested in history by watching Time Team on the TV in my own time. It encouraged me to go outside and try it for myself. Ever since I started finding actual finds of importance I enjoyed it more and more, up to this day. Now I wish to continue further with a regular job in either archaeology or palaeontology.

What is your favourite period in history?

Probably Roman.

Which finds have you liked the most, and why?

The Roman face pot (nicknamed Marion) because it is a very nice pot from my favourite period in history. I would also like to do some research on it at some point in the future.

I like the Palaeolithic flint blade due to the fact that it is very old (around 10 000 years). I also like to think about the many different ways it could have been used. I love the history behind it.

Palaeolithic flint blade

The Roman face pot (Marion)

What would you like to find in the future?

A hoard of Roman coins or something gold!

We wish Matt well in his remaining weeks with us and hope he finds that gold one day!

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

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!

Find of the month: August

It’s been a busy month at AAL with people off working all over the place. However, find of the month comes from a site worked on in 2015 and came to Cat and Yvonne’s attention while they were packing it up for sending to the museum.

I was working on a site in the center of Lincoln; near the river. It was a bright but cold day in February and half of our trench was partially filled with water. To avoid missing anything significant I was metal detecting the base of a partially excavated trench; as we knew we wouldn’t be able to excavate any further under these conditions.

The metal detector went BEEEEEEEEEEEEP; this was a full signal, implying that it was a strong signal; usually associated with a metal alloy. I used a little ruff neck spade to excavate the hole, and because of the water had to scoop out handfuls of sand; running them under the detector. The metal detector went off and I realised I was holding something round and metallic; a lead token.

One side of the token

The other side of the token

I gave it a further rinse, and recognised immediately what it was. I’ve found quite a few of these in the past, but this one was a bit more special; it is very good condition with markings on both sides. Tokens like this were used between the 16th and early 19th century. This one has likely been cast in a mold, rather than clipped. The specialist (Mike) believes it
might be a Powell Type 3 which would be of 18th century date (Powell 2012).

It was probably either a gaming piece, or it was token used instead of currency when money was scarce.

It’s a nice find because it indicates the use of the area during that period, further it was recovered from a medieval context suggesting that it was intrusive. The preservation of the piece and having markings both side makes it particularly special; and one of my favorites!

Powell, D. 2012 ‘The 18th century Sophistication of the Stock Design‘ Lead Token Telegraph Issue 86.

Digital techniques – Reflectance Transformation Imaging

Since starting at Allen Archaeology in September I’ve been involved with expanding our potential for digital recording and imaging. As you will hear in a later post, AAL have been using some techniques on site for a while but had not experimented with Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI).

A photo taken under normal lighting conditions

The same piece of wood viewed under novel lighting conditions and an acute lighting angle making the surface marks clearly visible

RTI is a technique which allows multiple images to be manipulated under varying lighting conditions to capture subtle surface information. Put simply when a surface is illuminated from an extreme angle it shows different information to a surface lit from above. By taking a series of photos from a single position but lit from different angles the images can be combined into an RTI, capturing a very accurate record of a surfaces shape. Imagine turning something in the light to discern changes in the surface. It can also allow the object to be viewed under novel lighting conditions allowing further information to be gleaned. Internet Archaeology have developed an online viewer with some examples here.

RTI has been used in research to record and study a whole range of objects and surfaces. Conservators have found the records useful in assessing the condition of artefacts (see here for some examples from the Smithsonian). While specialists in other fields have found the ability to compare artefacts located around the world has allowed their research to evolve (here are a variety of examples).

A normals visualisation of a pot from one of our sites

A normal visualisation of a Saxon pot from one of our sites

A close up of a coin under specular enhancement

At Allen Archaeology we have been using RTI as a supplementary record to photogrammetry, recording some of our particularly special finds. The results can then be sent on to our specialists to help them prepare our reports or to researchers with an interest in particular finds. They can also be used for us to send detailed information to our conservators in advance of the actual objects, helpful where objects are particularly fragile.

Chris and Josh having a go at capturing an RTI

The joy of RTI is it is quick, simple and low cost. The only equipment needed is a camera which can be used on a manual setting, a shiny ball (which the software uses to identify the position of the lighting) and a way of moving the lighting conditions (this can be a fancy remote flash or a light from a mobile phone). The software to combine the images is freely available (via the Cultural Heritage Imaging website).