Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T13:03:35.344Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

An Unusual Imported Bronze Jug Handle from Late Iron Age Easton, Suffolk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2020

Ruth Beveridge
Affiliation:
Stowmarket ruth.beveridge@outlook.com
Tom Woolhouse
Affiliation:
Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd, Cambridge twoolhouse@pre-construct.com

Abstract

Developer-funded excavation in Easton, Suffolk, investigated part of a long-lived Iron Age settlement and Roman farmstead. One late Iron Age pit contained an unusual bronze handle, most likely from a jug, the form of which appears to be unique in Britain. The closest parallels are products of Italian workshops in the late first century b.c. This paper describes the likely form of the vessel and discusses the significance of its presence at a rural settlement on the ‘border’ of the Iceni and Trinovantes/Catuvellauni.

Type
Shorter Contributions
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors, 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

With a contribution by SARAH PAYNTER

Historic England (S.P.) sarah.paynter@HistoricEngland.org.uk

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blagg, T., Plouviez, J., and Tester, A. 2004: Excavations at a Large Romano-British Settlement at Hacheston, Suffolk, 1973–74, East Anglian Archaeology Report 106, IpswichGoogle Scholar
Bolla, M. 1979: ‘“Blechkannen”: aggiornamenti’, Rassegna di studi del Civico Museo Archeologico e del Civico Gabinetto Numismatico di Milano 43–4, 95118Google Scholar
Butcher, K., and Ponting, M. 2014: The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage: From the Reform of Nero to the Reform of Trajan, CambridgeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, R.R. 1934: ‘A Roman site at Santon’, Norfolk Archaeology 25.2, 202–6Google Scholar
Crummy, N. 2015: ‘The copper-alloy jug’, in Atkinson, M. and Preston, S.J., Heybridge: A Late Iron Age and Roman Settlement, Excavations at Elms Farm 1993–5, Internet Archaeology 40, http://dx.doi.org/10.11141/ia.40.1.crummy3 (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Curteis, M. 2006: ‘Coinage and territoriality in Iron Age Essex and Suffolk’, Transactions of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History 37, 113Google Scholar
Davies, J.A. 2009: The Land of Boudica: Prehistoric and Roman Norfolk, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Davies, J.A. (ed.) 2011: The Iron Age in Northern East Anglia: New Work in the Land of the Iceni, BAR British Series 549, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, M. 2014: Technology at the Transition: Relationships between Culture, Style and Function in the Late Iron Age Determined through the Analysis of Artefacts, unpub. PhD thesis, Cardiff University, https://orca.cf.ac.uk/73215/12/Updated%202015davismphd.pdf (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Dungworth, D.B. 1995: Iron Age and Roman Copper Alloys from Northern Britain, unpub. PhD thesis, Durham UniversityGoogle Scholar
Dungworth, D.B. 1997: ‘Roman copper alloys: analysis of artefacts from northern Britain’, Journal of Archaeological Science 24.10, 901–10CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eggers, H.J. 1966: ‘Römische Bronzegefässe in Britannien’, Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz 13, 67164Google Scholar
Feugère, M., with Bourrieau, Y., and Millet, M. 2018: ‘Pitcher type Tassinari E.4000 (CRU-4001)’, in Artefacts: Encyclopédie des petits objets archéologiques, http://artefacts.mom.fr/result.php?id=CRU-4001 (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A.P. 1989: Cross Channel Relations in the British Later Iron Age, unpub. PhD thesis, Durham University, http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/949/ (accessed February 2020)Google Scholar
Foster, J. 1986: The Lexden Tumulus: A Re-appraisal of an Iron Age Burial from Colchester, Essex, BAR British Series 156, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Gregory, T. 1991: Excavations in Thetford, 1980–1982, Fison Way 1, East Anglian Archaeology Report 53, GressenhallGoogle Scholar
Gregory, T., and Rogerson, A. 1991: ‘General conclusions’, in Davies, J.A., Gregory, T., Lawson, A.J., Rickett, R. and Rogerson, A., The Iron Age Forts of Norfolk, East Anglian Archaeology Report 54, Gressenhall, 6972Google Scholar
Harrison, D. 2014: Land East of The Street, Easton: Geophysical Survey, unpub. report, West Yorkshire Archaeological Service Report 2562, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Haselgrove, C. 1996: ‘Roman impact on rural settlement and society in southern Picardy’, in Roymans, N. (ed.), From the Sword to the Plough: Three Studies on the Earliest Romanisation of Northern Gaul, Amsterdam Archaeological Studies 1, Amsterdam, 127–87Google Scholar
Hill, J.D. 1999: ‘Settlement, landscape and regionality: Norfolk and Suffolk in the pre-Roman Iron Age of Britain and beyond’, in Davies, J. and Williamson, T. (eds), Land of the Iceni: The Iron Age in Northern East Anglia, Studies in East Anglian History 4, Norwich, 185207Google Scholar
Johns, C. 1986: ‘The Roman silver cups from Hockwold, Norfolk’, Archaeologia 108, 113CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jouttijärvi, A. 2009: ‘Copper alloys, silver and gold’, in Boye, L. and Hansen, U. Lund (eds), Wealth and Prestige: An Analysis of Rich Graves from Late Roman Iron Age on Eastern Zealand, Denmark, Studier i Astronomi, Nyere Tid, Arkæologi 2, Kroppedal, 213–54Google Scholar
Jouttijärvi, A. 2017: ‘Roman alloying practice’, Materials and Manufacturing Processes 32.7–8, 813–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khamis, E. 2013: ‘Copper alloy objects’, in Aylward, W. (ed.), Excavations at Zeugma, Conducted by Oxford Archaeology, Los Altos, 93166Google Scholar
Lundock, J.R. 2014: A Study of the Deposition and Distribution of Copper Alloy Vessels in Roman Britain, unpub. PhD thesis, King's College LondonCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, E. 1988: Burgh: The Iron Age and Roman Enclosure, East Anglian Archaeology Report 40, IpswichGoogle Scholar
Martin, E. 1999: ‘The Iron Age’, in Dymond, D. and Martin, E. (eds), An Historical Atlas of Suffolk (3rd edn), Ipswich, 40–1Google Scholar
Moore, I.E., with Plouviez, J., and West, S. 1988: The Archaeology of Roman Suffolk, IpswichGoogle Scholar
Mustață, S. 2017: The Roman Metal Vessels from Dacia Porolissensis, Cluj-NapocaGoogle Scholar
Paynter, S. 2007: ‘Analysis of the currency bars, grave goods and pyre debris’, in Crummy, P., Benfield, S., Crummy, N., Rigby, V. and Shimmin, D. (eds), Stanway: An Elite Burial Site at Camulodunum, Britannia Monograph 24, London, 381–91Google Scholar
Ponting, M. 2018: ‘Pretia Victoriae or just an occasional bonus? Analysis of Iron Age lead artefacts from the Somerset Lake Villages’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 37.2, 185–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riederer, J. 1984: ‘Die naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchung der Ägyptischen Bronzen des Pelizaeus-Museums in Hildescheim’, Berliner Beiträge zur Archäometrie 9, 516Google Scholar
Rippon, S. 2008: Beyond the Medieval Village: The Diversification of Landscape Character in Southern Britain, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodwell, K.A. 1993: ‘Roman and later objects’, in Rodwell, W.J. and Rodwell, K.A., Rivenhall: Investigations of a Villa, Church and Village, 1950–1977, Chelmsford Archaeological Trust Report 4.2/Council for British Archaeology Research Report 80, London, 3542Google Scholar
Seeley, F. 2004: ‘The small finds’, in Blagg, T., Plouviez, J. and Tester, A., Excavations at a Large Romano-British Settlement at Hacheston, Suffolk, 1973–74, East Anglian Archaeology Report 106, Ipswich, 86149Google Scholar
Smith, R.A. 1909: ‘A hoard of metal found at Santon Downham, Suffolk’, Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 13.2, 146–63Google Scholar
Sueur, Q. 2017: ‘Vaisselle métallique en Gaule Belgique à la veille de la Conquête: répartition spatiale et perspectives de recherches’, in Ilczek, J., Cannot, A., Le Cozanet, T., Remy, J., Macháček, J. and Klápště, J. (eds), Interdisciplinarité et nouvelles approches dans les recherches sur l’âge du Fer, Brno, 193–7Google Scholar
Talbot, J. 2017: Made for Trade: A New View of Icenian Coinage, OxfordCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tassinari, S. 1993: Il vasellame bronzeo di Pompei, Ministero per i beni culturali ed ambientali, Soprintendenza archeologica di Pompei, cataloghi 5, RomeGoogle Scholar
Werner, J. 1954: ‘Die Bronzekanne von Kelheim’, Bayerische Vorgeschichtsblätter 20, 4373Google Scholar
Woolhouse, T. 2018: Land Adjacent to Easton Primary School, The Street, Easton, Suffolk: Archaeological Excavation Archive Report, unpub. report, Pre-Construct Archaeology Report 13524, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Woolhouse, T. in preparation: ‘A “persistent place”: Late Mesolithic flint-working, Early Bronze Age burials, Iron Age settlement and a Roman farmstead at The Street, Easton, excavations Autumn 2016’, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and HistoryGoogle Scholar