BAJR Federation Archaeology

Hello new to the forum just came across it tonight which is thankful as Ihave little problem with Identifying a piece of roman Flagon. So I thought Idrop by and ask you all first. I have look in books and on the net and stillcannot find if it was locally produced or imported in to the UK.

I have thought that the two pieces are Hofheim type ware or Lagenae warethen they could be made locally. I have taken photographs of the two fragments.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/18/50235211.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/593/93156499.jpg/

So I am hoping that someone will know the place of origin. Sorry if I'm notmeant to ask such questions or have posted in the wrong place.

Many thanks for your time in reading my post and if anyone knows a good book on Roman pottery that I can learn from would be a great help.

:face-approve:

Hi Sie1973! It's quite difficult to identify pottery from pictures as finds people like to 'feel' the fabric and look at the inclusions in the fabric to be able to tell where it was made and what period it belongs to. Do you have a fairly large museum nearby? Most county museums have experts who can identify sherds if you take them along. Sorry I can't be of more help.

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum Sie1973!

I'm not a ceramics specialist but the best site I can recommend is potsherd (http://potsherd.net/atlas/potsherd.html). The helpful thing on this site is it gives the known areas of distribution of the various wares.

Other than that, like Misty suggests the local museum may well help or there's also the local finds liaison officer from the portable antiquities scheme. (http://finds.org.uk/contacts).

May I say thank you for your time and helpful advice that you both have very kindly given me. I think I will contact my museum which is in Yorkshire as our small one we had shut down due to (dare I say it) cut backs. I will also report the find to my local Country archaeology as well as I must say I did forget as well. Really nice finds and I will inform them what I have found and show them so it is on record. Many thanks sie

Thanks for that. and don't be a stranger to BAJR. welcome and glad we could help. at least in pointing you into the right direction.

ecmgardner should get an award

ecmgardner hit the nail on the head - report the find to the local PAS officer: I think it is currently Rebecca Morris (Rebecca.Morris@ymt.org.uk).

Assessing pottery by photo is always difficult, but as you are in Yorkshire, you may want to start by looking at the white and parchment wares produced by the Crambeck industry and at York. for very useful fabric descriptions you may also find the National Roman Fabric Reference Collection very helpful (http://www.molas.org.uk/projects/fabrics...eport=nrfc).

Please let us know what you find out, this is definitely the right place to get people interested.

Glad to be of service!!! :I

First time I've seen the molas reference collection - very handy thanks gonetopot

Well I got some news about the pottery fragments. It?s been suggested that they belong to
catterick form type series of fabric42 and a rough date of Flavian period if that make sense? I?ve just found out what Flavian meant!!! Most of them are ring neck types of pottery and have been used as a flagon. I knew Binchester and Piercebridge fort had kilns but never expect catterick to have one.
Many thanks for letting me post on the forum and all the help I had
Si

Excellent news, I'm glad you found some answers. If you look at the entry for Catterick white-slipped wares in the National Roman Fabric Reference Collection (link above), you'll find a couple of references for kilns and pottery from Catterick. It sounds like you're on the slippery slope of an interest in Roman pottery (Congratulations!!). If you want to find out more via guides and bibliographies, have a look at the webpage for the Study Group for Roman Pottery (SGRP), and although dated a still useful little guide is Gillam (1968) Types of Roman Coarse Pottery Vessels in Northern Britain, which can often be sourced quite cheaply. Obviously there are many other more recent tomes, but this small book is an excellent starting point on the basoc coarse ware form types.

gonetopot as well deserves a special medal blimey, I learned as well. which is great. People will see that as well as grumbles, BAJR is a superb repository of knowledge from all sorts of people with remarkable skills and info to share. Thanks as well for teh MoLAS reference as well.