EPPIC: Roman Pottery Training (Ancaster)

English Heritage summaries. 2006/2007

An EPPIC scheme placement in Romano-British ceramics is being hosted by UCL Field Archaeology Unit and funded via the Institute of Field Archaeologists by English Heritage. This scheme aims to provide training in a specialist area in order to increase the number of skilled practitioners in the sector. The placement will run from April 2006 for 12 months. The Roman pottery assemblage from the Ancaster Cemetery excavations has been selected to be worked on during the placement.

The Ancaster Parish Cemetery occupies part of the area of a late Roman inhumation cemetery. In 1963 Nottingham University began a programme of excavations on the defences of the Roman walled settlement of Causennae in Ancaster village. This prompted the Parish Council to invite excavation of the Parish Cemetery also, with a view to clearing the vacant plots of any Roman coffins or other stonework. The main phases of excavation at Ancaster Cemetery ran from 1964 to 1969. The pottery assemblage comprises some 125 boxes of material and includes samian, mortaria, amphorae, Romano-British fine wares and local coarse wares as well as Iron Age material.

The aims of the project are two-fold with both training and research aims. The principal training aim is to provide the trainee with the skills and experience to identify, record, assess and interpret locally made Romano-British pottery from Lincolnshire and the surrounding areas, and develop a working knowledge of regional, national and European imports.

Research questions concerning the assemblage and site itself include: the chronology of the construction and abandonment of the fort, whether any military or non-native wares can be identified, and to understand the develop of the cemetery after the walling of the civil settlement.

Outcomes of the project will provide a complete ceramic archive to be deposited with the City of Lincoln Museum (including the site fabric and form type series) and to provide a full, analytical report of the assemblage for publication which will present the type series and well-dated groups.

This page was published on 25/09/2006