This week’s #FindsFriday is an unfinished Neolithic axe from Suffolk, known as a preform. There’s an issue with its butt end (the top part) which meant that, despite being nearly complete, it couldn’t be finished.
Fascinatingly, the face in the right-hand image shows around three undeveloped points of percussion from being struck hard. It’s tempting to imagine the knapper, realising the flaw, took a few frustrated whacks at it!
This beautifully decorated 5th-century AD Saxon comb case, from a site in Essex, would have kept a fragile comb safe. The intricate carvings and animal head finials highlight the artistry of the period, suggesting that everyday items were created with aesthetics in mind.
Click here to check it out from all angles in our 3D model on Sketchfab!
Today, we’re excited to share a glimpse into Roman Winchester’s southern cemetery, where recent work has revealed an intriguing burial assemblage. The black vessel held a cremation and it was found with two bow brooches and two Samian dishes — one of which served as a protective lid over the cremation. This site has also revealed several inhumations. Though the cemetery along the Roman road is relatively well-known, each find continues to add new insights into burial customs and personal belongings of the time. #FindsFriday
#FindsFriday This week we have an exciting find – a silver minim of Caratacus, known as a Caratacus Car type, dating c. 40-43. Caratacus was one of the sons of Cunobelin and one of the rulers who fought against the incoming Romans.
Only one example of this coin was previously known, so this is only the second known example! The obverse has the letters CAR while the reverse depicts an eagle with three pellets. This remarkable find comes from an assemblage of Celtic coinage retrieved during recent excavations in Buckinghamshire.
For #FindsFriday we have a stunning piece from the late 19th century—a beautifully moulded and enamelled clay tobacco pipe made by the renowned Paris company, Gambier. It’s a very rare find for London.
This pipe features the “Student” (Etudiant) design shown in their catalogues, a motif that was both fashionable and symbolic of the era’s social trends.
It was recovered during an ongoing excavation in Tower Hamlets. The East End was a melting pot of different cultures, particularly with the influx of immigrants during the 19th century. The nearby Tobacco Dock excavation produced at least one continental porcelain pipe that might have been associated with late 19th-century German refugees who owned shops there.
This stunning Anglo-Saxon cast saucer brooch is our star find so far from a site in the West Midlands! It would originally have had garnet inlays and dates to the 6th century.
Although research is still in its early stages, no parallels have been found for this combination of animal decoration and triskele motif, suggesting the brooch could be a significant discovery.
What a find! Last week Tamsin, one of our archaeologists, found this bronze age socketed axe during an evaluation in Hertfordshire.
Socketed axes were developed during the Late Bronze Age, an evolution on the earlier “palstave” type axes which characterised the Middle Bronze Age in Britain and Ireland.
This example has a side loop that probably helped secure the head to its haft, and dates to about 1100 – 800 BC.
We’re accustomed to unearthing fascinating artefacts, but every so often, something extraordinary is discovered which sends ripples through the archaeological community.
During recent excavations in Suffolk, our team found two very unusual Roman coins. Dr Peter Guest, who has undertaken extensive research on the coins has just posted his findings on LinkedIn.
The coins in question belong to the reign of Carausius, a usurper who ruled Britain and northern Gaul from 286 to 293 AD. Carausius’s coinage served as a canvas for sophisticated propaganda, which portrayed Carausius as an equal to the official emperors of the time, Diocletian and Maximian, and as the upholder of traditional Roman values. He was clearly particularly fond of the poet Virgil, especially his Aeneid (which was 300 years old at the time).
I struggled with the 2 new coins for a while because the combination of obverses and reverses didn’t make sense. Their obverses bear the emperor’s helmeted radiate bust facing left with spear and shield and the legend IMP CARAVSI-VS AVG (‘The Emperor Carausius Augustus’). The helmeted obverse bust was modelled on a type issued during the reign of Probus (276-282) and, although it is known for Carausius, it was not common.
Dr Peter Guest
The coins’ reverses are equally intriguing, also derived from coins of Probus but of a type unknown on Proban radiates and only known from gold aurei struck ing Rome and Siscia. on Carausian radiates. The reverses depict the helmeted emperor facing left, holding a spear and shield. He addresses two supplicants on either side, with the legend “PACAT ORBIS” (Peace-bringer to the world). The mint marks on these coins – //oXXVL – are previously undocumented for Carausius.
This type of Carausian radiate is not recorded in the relevant volume of Roman Imperial Coinage (published in 1933) and there is no mention of it in the Online Coins of the Roman Empire corpus (https://lnkd.in/eKSY9ppm), or anywhere else for that matter.
With the invaluable assistance of colleagues from The British Museum, including Andrew Burnett and Dr. Sam Moorhead, Dr Guest discovered that two other coins of the same type and mint mark had been recorded since 1933, providing crucial context and validation for our find. The inclusion of these coins in the upcoming edition of Roman Imperial Coinage Vol. V.5 further cements their significance in numismatic history.
Yet, questions remain. What were these rare coins doing at a settlement in West Suffolk, amidst a cache of 596 other Roman coins?
For #FindsFriday we’re thrilled to share a 3D model of an amazing find from the Middle Iron Age — a pole ladder, one of the earliest examples of its kind found in the UK.
The ladder was discovered largely intact, leaning against the side of a well. With two siderails and five rungs carved from oak, and measuring 2.3m x 0.7m, it was extremely robust compared to other Later Iron Age and Romano-British ladders. It would have weighed 70kg when first built, but has gradually dried out over the centuries, weighing 50kg when excavated. The rarity of waterlogged wood from the Iron Age makes this discovery even more exciting!
This 3D model by Valerio and Isaac, our Geospatial Data Team, is part of a collection we’re planning to add to our forthcoming Virtual Museum.
For #FindsFriday, a repaired dolium from Newgate Street in the City of London. Dolia are large, neckless jars usually associated with viticulture; they could also have been used as storage or preserving jars. They’re relatively rare in Roman Britain. The complex lead brackets used to repair this example are exceptional and very few parallels are known to have been used on pottery vessels. While there are a few known repaired large storage vessels in Roman Britain, excitingly this may be the first repaired dolium-type vessel to be found here!
Kathy Davidson will be giving a talk on our work at Newgate Street at the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society conference tomorrow. Read more about the site, with a link to book tickets, here: https://www.pre-construct.com/news/lamas-60th-annual-conference/
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