| The finds
recovered by Felix
Oswald in the 1920s and Malcolm Todd in the late 1960s
through excavation at Margidunum enable us to reconstruct
some aspects of the Roman economy over the 400 years of Roman
occupation in this country. Although much of the consumer
goods used on the site would have been locally produced, the
initial military occupants imported some goods, which were
not readily available in the vicinity and, after the military
units left, a small town like Margidunum had access to a wide
range of traded goods of some quality.
Every day items such as meat, milk, eggs,
bread and vegetables are most likely to have been obtained
from farms in the surrounding countryside and perhaps brought
in to sell in roadside shops. The “strip” buildings
sited at right angles to the Fosse Way may have functioned
in just such a way and one of them, Building B, had an oven
situated behind it, perhaps for baking bread. Such shops can
be seen depicted on carving from Ostia in Italy and have been
found in excavation on larger town sites in England, such
as Wroxeter.
An oven, possibly used
for baking bread, found behind Building B.
Photo: M. Todd. Nottingham University Dept Archaeology
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As well as perishable goods, craftsmen
may also have set up shop along the Fosse Way. One area excavated
by Malcolm Todd contained scrap iron objects, slag and a great
number of sharpening hone
stones used for sharpening tools. Todd suggested that
this area perhaps functioned as a smithy. Lead slag was identified
on Todd’s excavation, indicating the working of lead,
perhaps from the Derbyshire mines. Fragments of lead sheet
and a lead bowl were found during excavation, but lead has
always been vulnerable to stripping and re-use so one can
imagine that most of the Roman lead was reused during the
Mediaeval period. Romans used lead for water tanks, pipes,
bath liners and coffins or coffin linings (of which two were
excavated by Todd in the Margidunum cemetery) and domestic
items, such as small bowls. Several pottery vessels were found
which had been mended using lead rivets and plugs.
click on the thumbs for a larger view.
Distorted and over burnt pottery sherds
together with a prop used to stack pottery in kilns are evidence
that many of the pottery vessels used in the town were made
locally. During the earliest military occupation of Margidunum,
fine pottery was probably produced by potters attached to
the army, coming from the Continent or the south of England.
Thus the army was, in effect, importing potters rather than
pots to facilitate the high standard of living to which they
were accustomed. These potters produced a whole range of fine
wares including fine orange wares imitating samian forms and
tableware embellished with a mica rich slip, which made them
glisten and look like their metal counterparts. A range of
glazed pottery was found. Such vessels are rare and date to
the late first and early second century. Glazed ware production
is known outside the fort at Derby, but the fabric of this
sherd is unlike the Derby glazed wares and may indicate production
at Margidunum. This is a highly specialised technique, involving
the careful control of temperature, and was certainly conducted
by experienced potters from the Continent. At sites such as
Wroxeter and Castleford, evidence for pottery shops has been
found so we might imagine stalls set out selling both locally
made and imported vessels.
Other locally produced goods might include
the many bone pins found during excavation.
Craftsmen such as stonemasons and woodworkers
are represented by their tools and by their products. To these
we can add builders, plasterers,
thatchers and roof
tilers. Roofers also used locally produced Swithland Slate
from Charnwood. Fragments of window
glass, together with a possible stone window arch implies
the existence of glaziers. Keys from the site indicate the
use of a locksmith.
Cottage industry may have included the
production of various items of clothing. Site finds include
spindle whorls and weaving tablets. These clearly would be
used in the production of garments for a household, but we
know from the Vindolanda tablets that some types of cloaks
were traded and were sought after. Tablet 255 gives us a letter
from one Clodius Super to Cerialis, prefect of the Ninth Cohort
of Batavians at Vindolanda AD 97-105, asking him to send six
sagaciae, saga and seven palliola and six tunics which he
could not get hold of (at Vindolanda). Sagaciae, saga and
palliola are different kinds of cloaks. Tablet 196 refers
to casual clothing for dining. Accounting list such as that
recorded on tablet 192 lists 38lbs wool as well as more cloaks
and a bedspread.
For more on the Vindolanda tablets see http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk
Maps showing the parts of Britain and
the continent where imported goods came from can be seen by
clicking here:
Imports from the Continent.
Trade within Britain.
Some foodstuffs were traded including
oysters. Oswald found a cylindrical mass of oysters stacked
in overlapping circular rows as if in a wooden keg which had
since perished. Oysters were a popular food with the Romans
and many were found scattered throughout the excavation deposits.
These would have perhaps come by road from the Lincolnshire
coast. We know from elsewhere that quite exotic foodstuffs,
such as figs, grapes and apricots could be obtained in Britain,
but analysis of organic material was sadly not carried out
at Margidunum.
This little beaker has
been decorated using a rough casting technique that
would help the beaker not to slip.
Nottingham University Museum Photo: Robin Aldworth
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In addition to on-site production of
high-class pottery vessels made by potters who travelled with
them, the army also imported quantities of table ware. The
most popular of these was the shiny, red, samian ware used
to make bowls,
dishes, cups, jars and mortaria,
a special type of bowl used for food preparation by the Romans.
These came from Gaul and were carried by ship to the coasts
of Britain from whence they were conveyed by road to the military
and civil market. Stalls at Wroxeter and Castleford were found
selling piles of samian bowls and it may be that similar stalls
were set up by merchants in the settlements that grew up outside
forts along the Fosse Way. Certainly, quantities of this fine
pottery were found at Margidunum.
As well as the large quantities of samian
ware, smaller amounts of fine cups and beakers were imported
from potteries in Central Gaul and the Rhineland, related
to the samian production centres. Those found at Margidunum
from Central Gaul include beakers
with a curving pattern executed by trailing semi-liquid
clay over the air-dried vessel and then letting it dry before
dipping the whole pot in a liquid clay slip of a contrasting
colour, red or brown/black. A second form found at Margidunum
was a bowl with three little legs. At least three of this
type were found but it is very rare in Britain.
One example is decorated with rouletting,
achieved by running a little decorated wheel around the pot
while leather hard, a bit like decorating pastry. The other
examples have rough-cast decoration. This technique involved
coating the pot in little bits of dried clay before dipping
in the coloured slip and firing it. This has a similar effect
to pebble dash and, indeed, some pottery centres used sand
rather than particles of dried clay to coat the vessel. A
very fine
cup may come from this area of Gaul also, although a precise
parallel to the form has not yet been found.
Black ware used to make fine bowls decorated
with stamps was found, dating to the late first or early second
century. This belongs to a group known as Parisian ware, but
the bowls from Margidunum seem to have very distinctive forms
and decoration suggesting they may have been made nearby.
Coarse wares seem to have been made locally also. At least
one ware seems to have been made at Margidunum or very near
by. Most of the cooking pots were in a grey ware, which was
produced all over Roman Britain and can be difficult to identify
the source. Further study of the coarse wares at Margidunum
may uncover evidence of trade with the early kilns at Lincoln
or Leicester.
The Romans introduced a mixing
bowl called a mortarium. These were large with hooked
or hammer-headed rims and were made by specialist potters
who, in the first and second century, stamped their name on
the rims.
This mortarium is
from St Albans and is stamped by a man called Albinus
who worked there in the late 1st century having probably
moved from kilns at Colchester.
Nottingham University Museum Photo: Robin Aldworth
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During the early period, mortaria have been identified from
potteries at Mancetter-Hartshill, near Coventry, and St Albans.
Potters identified on mortaria found at Margidunum include
Albinus who worked at St Albans and Sarrius
from Mancetter-Hartshill. Another mortarium made by Albinus
is stamped F LVGVDV, which probably means f(actum) Lugudu(ni),
made at Lugudunum, presumably near St Albans. We also know
of mortaria made by Matugenus, the son of Albinus, also working
at St Albans. These mortaria are clearly linked with changes
in food preparation and, interestingly, are found in much
the same quantities on both rural and urban sites. We know
from a mortarium from the Roman site at Usk marked for a military
unit – “contu(e)rnio Messoris” - before
it was fired that units within the army sometimes ordered
these vessels straight from the potters. Graffito scratched
on a samian bowl after firing from Rocester, marked Coh(ortis)
… [G]allorum, and a mortarium from Catterick, inscribed
“century of M”, suggests the purchase of pottery
vessels on behalf of a company.
Other items imported from the Continent
include pipeclay figurines from the Allier region of Gaul
and probably some of the fine glassware,
although some of this may have been produced in Britain, at
places such as Leicester and Wilderspool, Cheshire, where
glassworks are known. A fragment of marble veneer was identified
which probably came from the Continent and the stone pilaster
of Lincolnshire limestone had also been imported to the site.
Stone querns from Derbyshire were also very common.
Leather garments and shoes were also
sometimes obtained from elsewhere. A shoe surviving at Margidunum
was very decorative. In the Vindolanda tablets (no. 343),
Catterick is mentioned as a source of hides, which presumably
would have been used by the army to make tents, cloaks and
many other leather items. Excavations at Catterick have suggested
that it may have been a leatherworking centre for the army
and the author of the letter surviving as tablet 343 may have
been a trader dealing with the army.
The military and commercial function
of Margidunum is reflected in the recovery of at least three
imported samian inkpots and some iron styli. These would be
used to compile inventories of the items stored in the camp
or to write lists for military personnel to take to military
depots such as that possibly sited at Margidunum at some stage.
Such lists survive at Vindolanda.
Red
ware (samian) inkpot. Sherds from several of these were
found at Margidunum and, like the stylus. This tells
us that there were educated people living there, probably
officials in charge of taxation or the imperial post
or the military quartermaster.
Nottingham University Museum Photo: Robin Aldworth |
Romans used these iron
spatulate objects, called a stylus, to write on wax
tablets. The pointed end was used to inscribe the wax
while the spatulate end was used to “rub out”
mistakes. The presence of writing materials at Margidunum
shows that some people were literate and perhaps indicates
the presence of clerks and officials collecting taxes
and working for the Imperial postal system.
Nottingham University Museum Photo: Robin Aldworth
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In the second century, fine samian ware
continued to be imported to Margidunum although there is evidence
that supply may have fluctuated and at times extensive repairs
were necessary either because the owners could not afford
a replacement or could not obtain one. Fine wares from Gaul
are represented by these late second to third century fine
black ware beakers and cup. However most of fine table
wares from the middle of the second century were obtained
from a large pottery in the Nene Valley producing a wide range
of beakers, bowls and a distinctive lidded vessel known as
a Castor
Box. These fine wares were made in white or brown-orange
clay, which had been dipped in a darker slip. They were decorated
in various ways including en barbotine (relief decoration
formed by trailing semi-liquid clay over pot when air dried),
rouletting, and by painting and were widely distributed throughout
the 2nd-4th centuries in the Midlands and beyond. In the fourth
century, tableware was also obtained from kilns near Oxford,
which produced fine bowls with a red colour coat, sometimes
further decorated with white paint. There may also have been
tableware and mortaria bought from a little nearer at the
Lincoln kilns in the late third and fourth centuries. One
or two fine samian bowls also came from Argonne
in northern France in the fourth century.
Other pottery vessels were obtained from
potteries within Britain itself.
These rather rough sherds
of pottery have all been traded from other parts of
Britain, as far away as Dorset. From top left clockwise
a jar made near Belper, a bowl from Dorset, a jar from
Lincolnshire and a jar from Bedfordshire or south Lincolnshire.
Nottingham University Museum Photo: Robin Aldworth
|
The military obtained large quantities
of a black, burnished kitchen ware from Dorset
and these must have been sold at settlements along the Fosse
Way. These are often burnt or have burnt-on matter, presumably
boiled over stew and such like. Cooking pots were not as easy
to keep clean as metal or glass and may have been prone to
cracking if moved from the fire onto a cold surface. There
are certainly many broken pots represented in the debris left
at Margidunum. Other coarse ware pots were obtained from Derbyshire,
Lincolnshire
and possibly Bedfordshire,
perhaps traded for their contents rather than the pots themselves.
In both the military and the civil periods
of occupation, amphora containing wine and oil were brought
from Spain
in apparently quite small quantities if the Nottingham University
Museum collection is representative. There are however quite
a few large storage jars, made in shell-tempered ware, which
may have been used to hold store liquids in the first and
early second century. In the third and fourth century the
frequent discovery of tall grey ware jars with narrow necks
down the wells at Margidunum suggest that this type of vessel
was probably used in a similar way to store liquid.
Mortaria continued to be brought from
the kilns at Mancetter-Hartshill throughout the second (including
some made by Sarrius
who worked at Mancetter-Hartshill and also opened up workshops
at Doncaster and in Scotland), third and fourth centuries
and these were augmented by samian mortaria, colour-coated
mortaria from the Nene
valley and Oxford, white slipped mortaria from Lincoln,
and plain white mortaria from the Nene Valley. Locally made
mortaria may be present in the second century but this needs
further study.
These sherds are from
very large storage jars. They have combed arcs and lines
on their bodies perhaps to improve grip while lifting.
Many examples of this type of jar were found and some
have been found buried to the neck in the ground. Such
subterranean stores could be used to keep food cool
or, less attractively, to collect urine for tanning,
as was common practice in Mediaeval times.
Nottingham University Museum Photo: Robin Aldworth
|
This far-reaching trade was facilitated
by the excellent road and sea network established by the Romans.
The Fosse Way leading from Exeter to Lincoln must have attracted
traders as well as the imperial officials and soldiers for
whom it was primarily built. Roman ship wrecks such as that
at Pudding Pan Rock, three miles north of Herne Bay, Kent,
give us an excellent idea of the kind of cargo coming to Britain
and this included a consignment of samian ware, roof tiles
and colour-coated ware. Other wrecks known from the Roman
period were carrying amphora, mortaria and lamps. Shops within
the settlements outside forts are known at Castleford, Yorkshire
(with a stock of samian and Colchester mortaria), Corbridge
on Hadrian’s Wall (stocked with mortaria and smaller
amounts of grey coarse ware and samian) and in towns at Wroxeter
(mortaria, samian and a small amount of whetstones). Trade
in fine samian ware, mortaria, imported colour-coated wares,
glass, lamps and other smaller consignments such as the hone
stones is, therefore, certain. Coarse wares occur rarely
in these shops, warehouse deposits and shipwrecks, but do
occur at forts such as Corbridge. We know that local kilns
were able to supply the needs of the civil population in the
Romanised south of Britain while in the military north the
pottery was obtained from military kilns outside the forts
or brought in large consignments from places such as kilns
in Dorset and the Thames estuary, where cooking wares known
as black burnished wares were manufactured. Evidence of the
types of pottery represented at Margidunum in the 2nd-4th
centuries suggests local production of the common coarse wares
and traded fine and coarse wares from Gaul, Lincoln, the Nene
Valley, Oxford, Derbyshire, north Lincolnshire and Bedfordshire.
It is difficult to quantify this trade but the samian supply
certainly suggests fairly regular consignments arriving at
the settlement with times of scarcity perhaps indicated by
the need to repair rather than replace vessels.
Roman brooches. These would
originally have sprung pins and were used to fasten clothing
as well as decoration. Nottingham University Museum Photo:
Robin Aldworth |
Other goods are
less easy to source. Glass
vessels were highly prized and certainly were present.
There is some uncertainty as to whether raw glass was
commonly made in this country, whether it was made from
imported glass cullet (broken or glass waste collected
and sold or bartered for re-use) or imported. Items
of jewellery, such as brooches and shale
bracelets, may also have been traded by itinerant
traders whereas large scale consignments of tiles,
stone and slate would have been delivered when the town
wall was faced with Lincolnshire limestone and building
was roofed with Charnwood slate.
There are several books and
reports which give additional details about the excavations
at Margidunum. Click
here to see the list of titles. |
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