FIELD WALKING
DESCRIPTION OF FINDS
IRON AGE POTTERY
David Knight identified 46 sherds found as Iron Age. Six are Scored Ware, attributable to the middle to late Iron Age. The others cannot be more closely dated. All the sherds are very eroded, but include rims, bases and shoulders. Several are blackened on the outside and are probably from cooking pots.
Middle to Late Iron Age
Six sherds of scored ware (49321 and 49324) were found, five of them on Parson’s Hill (field 1308). The fabric is grey to dark grey, some with brown oxidised surfaces. They all have score marks, one in the form of a cross-hatch pattern. The fabric is quartz tempered with the sandy grains ranging from fine sand to gritty. Quartz is sub-angular to rounded. There are some bits of sandstone and rounded iron oxide grains. One of the finds is darker than the rest and contains fuel-ash slag. One sherd is part of a base and side. It is slightly spayed and the side made an angle of 120o to the base.
One small, well eroded find is black and gritty, with well-rounded to sub-angular quartz grains, bits of sandstone and some fuel ash slag up to 2 mm across. There are some unidentified, black, well shaped crystals among the filler. This fabric is similar to the one piece of scored ware with fuel ash slag temper. It is not from the same field, but near by and may be scored ware, but not well preserved enough to show scoring. David Knight reports that fuel ash slag tempered sherds have been found on Parson’s Hill in the past.
Late Iron Age
David Knight suggested that several sherds in field 2491 could derive from late Iron Age activity, possibly from 1st century BC to early/mid 1st century AD. They are all light to medium grey, one with a brown oxidised surface; others blackened on the outside surface. A possible zig-zag ornament is visible on one. The fabric is quartz tempered and only quartz was seen in the sherds.
Iron Age
Most of the sherds could not be given any specific age attribution. They vary from light to dark grey and nearly black. Several have oxidised surfaces; others are blackened. They are all quartz tempered, but many also contain small grains of sandstone. The amount of quartz varies quite considerably. There are two sherds that did not fit this pattern. In one (38701) there are some large (4 – 5 mm) angular, very fine-grained fragments that may be siltstone. Another (15795) contains large inclusions of white carbonate material. The provenance of these is uncertain.