ROMANO-BRITISH SUFFOLK 



The following extract is from a communication to the British Archaeological Association, 

 by Mr. Hamlet Watling of Stonham : — 



A vast quantity of Roman and other remains have been found lately in the valley intersect- 

 ing the two parishes of Earl Stonham and Little Stonham. This valley was apparently a 

 village and that to the south a cemetery ; a vast quantity of urns of a dark colour, covered with 

 tiles and containing human bones, with long nails, &c. have been found. To the north of the 

 church is an extensive barrow, in the vicinity of which urns of a grey colour are found, and 

 within the churchyard is a tumulus. Only fifteen rods have as yet been excavated, but from this 

 small area vast quantities of pottery, iron, lead, glass, copper coins, querns, flue tiles, &c., have 

 been obtained, also flint implements and a quantity of oyster and other shells and horns and 

 bones of deer, hog, horse, ox, wolf, goat, &c. 



The following objects were sent for exhibition : — Animal remains as noted, knives, a key 

 and nail of iron, a leaden weight, a grotesque mask originally forming part of a vessel of brown 



ware, the bottom of a vase with the potter's stamp , the last two letters ligulated. The 



depth at which the Roman remains occurred appears to have been about i ft. i o in. beneath 

 the present surface [ibid, xxiv, 184-5, 286, 397]. The coins found, identified by the Rev. 

 C. E. Searle, were mostly third brass of the Lower Empire. Those read with certainty were of 

 Claudius Gothicus (a.d. 268-70), Diocletian (a.d. 284-305), Carausius (a.d. 286-93), Con- 

 stantine I (a.d. 307-37), Constantine II (a.d. 337-40), Magnentius (a.d. 350-3), Valens (?) 

 (a.d. 364-78). There was one plated denarius and a minimus. At a later date drawings of 

 objects found at Stonham were sent for exhibition to the British Archaeological Association. 

 These drawings showed various vessels ornamented with white slip, perhaps Durobrivian 

 pottery, two mortaria, one of red, the other of grey ware, with loop handles. Near the 

 former were found two flint pounders, also an object of lead resembling a key. These remains 

 lay amongst ashes, together with coins of Constantine I (a.d. 307-37), bones, and cut horns of 

 deer. Spindle-whorls, and upper and lower stones of querns of pudding stone, of Andernach 

 lava, and of other stones, and flue tiles, were shown on the drawings [ibid, xxvii, 385-6]. In 

 the restoration of Earl Stonham Church a conical muller of jasper was found, with fragments 

 of Roman pottery, in the south transept [ibid, xxxi, 216]. The drawings mentioned, with 

 others by Mr. Watling, representing objects from the same site, are in the collection of Miss 

 Nina Layard. The pottery represented is of the character usually found on Roman sites, and 

 includes specimens of red, black, and buff or stone-coloured ware, with a very small proportion 

 of so-called Samian fragments. On one of these is a potter's mark, severim. One fragment 

 is shown of New Forest ware. Portions of flue tiles are also figured. The objects of iron 

 are of the usual character — keys, knives, shears, &c. Amongst those in bronze may be noted 

 three diminutive wide-mouthed pots, each with one handle, joined together in a group. Of 

 lead there are two or three articles, and of Kimmeridge shale one, a simple ring bracelet. Some 

 flat ovate jet beads were found in the gravel at Stonham, over an earlier deposit of bones, coarse 

 pottery, &c. [Journ. Brit. Arch. Assoc, xxxvi, 357]. On a chart with these drawings is given 

 a plan of the site of the discoveries. The remains appear to have been found for the most 

 part in the glebe land south-west of the rectory of Earl Stonham, and in the fields west of 

 this land, divided from it by a small stream. Other finds occurred in a field north of the 

 rectory, and a line of them extended from the church of Earl Stonham to that of Stonham 

 Aspall. There is a drawing of shears from this site, found in 1867, in SufF. Illus. 

 (Fitch Coll.) xiv [Arch. Journ. xxvi, 401 ; Proc. Suff. Arch. Inst, v, 117; O.S. 6-in. Ivii, 

 NW.]. 

 Stow, West. — Potters* kilns were found on a slight ridge on the heath, in the spring of 1879. The 

 first was circular in form, 3 ft. 6 in. in internal diameter, with a furnace chamber, also 

 circular, attached to the east side. The walls were i ft. 6 in. high and 4 in. thick, and were 

 of puddled clay with a large admixture of chalk pebbles. Nothing of the upper floor of the 

 kiln remained, but in one place half-way up the wall a triangular brick pierced in the centre 

 remained. It was vitrified on the surface, and was the only indication left of the baking floor. 

 Other perforated tiles, however, were found in the rubbish. A second kiln, 8 ft. south of the 

 first, was only 3 ft. in diameter. The furnace was formed by walls with an outward splay. 

 Bricks i ft. i in. long by 8 in. wide and 3 in. thick, each perforated with two holes 2^ in. in 

 diameter, lay in the kiln, no doubt the remains of the baking floor ; and a number of circular 

 bricks 6^ in. in diameter and 3-4 in. thick were with them, evidently fragments of the pilae 

 supporting this floor. The method of construction of the kilns was clear. The earth had 

 been dug out in a circle to the depth of 4 ft., the bottom of the excavation filled with clay well 

 trodden down, and then the walls to a height of some 18 in. or 20 in. were formed against 



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