Cate Davies

A wonderful find from one of our sites yesterday!

This complete German Frechen stoneware Bartmann (or Bellarmine) jug has a benign face and a medallion with an unknown coat of arms. It dates from c. 1580-90 and was used for serving alcohol (probably ale).

Complete examples of these jugs are more frequent finds than other post-medieval pots because they are a robust stoneware and were often used as witch bottles buried whole, containing nails, hair, urine and other items. Witch bottles were usually buried on the threshold of homes and used to trap and stop evil spirits entering the home. Examination of the contents will reveal whether this is the case with this example!

The faces on Bartmann (which is German for ‘bearded man’) jugs may be a derivation of the green man motif.

Dr James Gerrard will be giving a talk in the Ballroom at Bedale Hall, on Friday 29th October 2021 at 7pm, on the results of our excavations ahead of the Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar bypass in North Yorkshire. A selection of artefacts will be on display.

This year’s conference, ‘Archaeology of the Church: perspectives from recent work in the South-East’, will be run jointly with CBA-SE and held as an online event on Saturday 27 November.

The title of this year’s Autumn Roman Finds Group Conference, held in association with King’s College London, is Roman Finds from Infrastructure Projects. The conference be online, and will consist of illustrated papers (some pre-recorded and some live) on Monday 18th October.

An online discussion via Zoom on Monday 18th October 2021, beginning at 7pm at The Rose Playhouse.

We’re proud to have three interesting articles in this year’s proceedings with Streph’s photo of the Cherry Hinton pots, below, making the front cover.

Today marks the press release of our latest popular publication ‘Before Bedale: Archaeological excavations along the route of the Bedale, Aiskew and Leeming Bar Bypass’ which is available as a free download by clicking here.

PCA Cambridge and Norfolk have finally been able to do our annual summer BBQ! It was great to catch up, eat some food, and chat about archaeology and life. We also got a group photo with the drone!

While photographing some of the metallic finds from the burials at Three Kings, Haddenham, Cambridgeshire, our RTI specialist Ryan noticed that the decoration and overall shape of one of the small finds, a shield decoration, looked very similar to a sturgeon in its overall morphology.

PCA, in conjunction with MOLA, will be holding a free exhibition at The Mill community centre on Coppermill Lane on Saturday 25th September, from 10am-4pm.