DecLawles Posted June 9, 2011 Report Share Posted June 9, 2011 Hi, Me and my Dad went and took the dog for a walk today and within 10 minutes of finding one larger piece we found approx 1KG of roman tiles within a very small area in a field. I wondered what the importance of this would be and if there was anything we need to do. Does anyone have any suggestions for us? We will be going back tomorrow to try and collect more. Thank you very much for your time. Dec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted June 9, 2011 Report Share Posted June 9, 2011 Dec, The general advice, at least within the UK, is that you shouldn't be removing large quantities of ceramic or other historic material from any site as they really belong to the landowner. If the landowner is aware of the site then pottery is something which on an unexcavated site can be used by archaeologists to plot out possible concentrations of activity which can be important when deciding which areas should be excavated later on. To do this they need to know the precise quantities of different material that has been found in which part of the site marked as concentrations on a very precise grided plan of the site. Sites which are known about may be scheduled which means it could actually be illegal to take anything away even by the landowner except under strictly controlled circumstances normally only as part of a licenced archaeological excavation. The best advice is to contact your local sites and monuments liason officer before you remove anything else from the area and check if they know about the site. They may be based with the local records office but if you have a local museum they should be able to confirm where they are and put you into contact with the correct office. Alternatively they may be listed under your main local authority often under the museums service. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DecLawles Posted June 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2011 Hi, Thank you very much for your advice its very helpful and its nice to get such a fast response! We've never found anything before and are unsure as to if 1kg is a lot of tiles to find, they were all within a very local area, is this unusual to find so many within a small space? In regards to the pieces we have got, we are very interested to know what exactly they are, as we are not entirely sure if it is Roman or Medieval. Would the same people be able to help or is there another contact or someone else who can assist with that, though from picture comparison they do seem to have a lot more in common looks wise to other Roman tiles posted up. (But we are definitely no experts!) We both have a keen interest in history and would love to know more. Thanks again for your help. Regards, Dec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klingan Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 Do you think that you could post a couple of those pictures? I've never worked with Roman tiles from the UK, but I know what to look after in the Mediterranean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 Dec, In Britain the other people who can advise on finds are the local Portable Antiquities Scheme officers who are contactable here. Although more concerned with the reporting of metal objects and items of 'treasure' if you cannot find the local contact for general advice the local PAS contact should be able to either provide it themselves or at least point you in the correct direction. As to whether you have found a lot of tile fragments it really depends on how large an area they were collected over and the precise mix of material (both by period and type) you have found. 1 kg is only a small proportion of what is usually termed ceramic building material (or CBM) originally used on any large building or group of smaller ones in the Roman or more modern period of history. If the fragments were tightly concentrated then they could indicate the presence of buildings as you suspect. Alternatively they may indicate where there was a kiln making tiles or even where building material has been dumped after use. Plough action over the centuries can scatter CBM over a suprosonmgly wide area especially on a slope. It does however sound promising and definitely should be checked to see if the site is officially known about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DecLawles Posted June 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 Hi All, Thanks again for all the help and advice! We have been in contact with the local finds officer and they have said they appear roman, we are arranging to document where they were found and assist them in every way they can, we will keep you updated with what they say to us. Here is some of the photo's I have taken, apologies for the poor quality. The colours are all orange/red (the 3 which look different are only ones that we haven't cleaned) apart from the large piece which looks more like a floor tile than a roof one and has a sandy side one side and more smooth the other. I have also included some close ups to display the material in more detail. We would appreciate any advice you can give on their age or period they are from as we are very interested! http://postimage.org/image/1gwhcbtwk http://postimage.org/image/1gwizv6ec http://postimage.org/image/1gwkneiw4 http://postimage.org/image/1gwmaxvdw http://postimage.org/image/1gwnyh7vo http://postimage.org/image/1gwpm0kdg http://postimage.org/image/1gwsx39d0 http://postimage.org/image/1gww85yck http://postimage.org/image/1gwxvpauc http://postimage.org/image/1gwzj8nc4 http://postimage.org/image/1gx16rztw http://postimage.org/image/1gx2ubcbo http://postimage.org/image/1gx4huotg http://postimage.org/image/1gx7sxdt0 Thank you very much for any help you can give, if you need any more info or pics of specific bits just ask. Kind Regards, Dec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 Even without a fixed scale such as a foot ruler the third last and last images to my eyes provide some of the best information of the range of material you have and evidence for firing. I am no expert on ceramics although I have excavated some CBM in my time and this does match fairly closely with what I have excavated on a major Roman site in Oxfordshire. One thing I suspect rather than tiles some of the material may possibly be the remains of bricks as they seem thicker than I would expect for tiles. The primary indicator for CBM used as tiles are the presence of nail holes but as this is where tiles tend to break along with the evidence for erosion/ wear on them this may explain the lack of such features. I'm glad you are working with the local finds officer especially if as I suspect some of the CBM is brick as well as tile as it will help confirm if this is a new site. Well done for reporting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DecLawles Posted June 10, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 (edited) Hey, Here's some more photo's of somethings that I didn't picture before, plus a couple of bits of pottery which we found on the public footpath today on the surface and took great care to catalog where they were located before moving them. Please anyone who can tell us what any of these are it would be greatly appreciated. If they help date what we have found that would be even better. In addition to this pottery we also found a fashioned piece of metal and a very polished and perfect stone ball, of a stone type that is not found anywhere else within the area we have walked. We have also mapped the area where we found the pieces and have been able to ascertain the area in the field in which the finds are most highly populated. We are doing what we can to find out who the land owner is and are sending of some of the pieces to be examined by our local finds officer. If anyone has any suggestions on which to send for examination then that again would be greatly appreciated. http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/4189/p1020888h.jpg http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/9690/p1020889o.jpg http://img862.imageshack.us/img862/3619/p1020890a.jpg http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/6206/p1020891o.jpg http://img807.imageshack.us/img807/6535/p1020893.jpg http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1299/p1020895r.jpg http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/5729/p1020896.jpg http://img101.imageshack.us/img101/1006/p1020897u.jpg http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5645/p1020898q.jpg http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9917/p1020900x.jpg http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/6087/p1020901sd.jpg http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/796/p1020903i.jpg http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/673/p1020905.jpg http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/4801/p1020906g.jpg http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/1093/p1020907p.jpg http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/1189/p1020908v.jpg http://img813.imageshack.us/img813/8131/p1020910.jpg http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7103/p1020911a.jpg http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/2124/p1020913l.jpg http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/5179/p1020914cb.jpg http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5310/p1020915e.jpg http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/9315/p1020916q.jpg http://img805.imageshack.us/img805/7178/p1020917v.jpg http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/406/p1020918wk.jpg http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/3292/p1020919d.jpg http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6765/p1020920u.jpg http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/7002/p1020921e.jpg http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5078/p1020922rz.jpg I hope the pictures are of good enough quality, any questions or requests then please just ask, I have used a pound coin as a constant throughout to help ascertain size and thinkness of the objects. Kind Regards, Dec Edited June 10, 2011 by DecLawles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melvadius Posted June 10, 2011 Report Share Posted June 10, 2011 Dec The use of a coiin as a standard size is a good idea although a lot of the pieces do look fairly small it should give an expert a useful standard size to measure against. It does look like you have some interesting pieces and at least one piece with the remains of the hole used to fix a tile onto a roof (images 903 and 905). Some of the other pieces do look like the bases of pottery but I'm not expert enough to say which type they are precisely. hopefully once the find officer sees them they will be able to give you more information. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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