Roman Pottery Kiln and Workshops at Vindolanda

I'm really excited about this new collaboration with Vindolanda Roman Fort near to Hadrians Wall, the first stage has been to create a reconstruction of a Roman pottery kiln as a permanent feature of the site. Built with the help of a very enthusiastic team of Vindolanda volunteers, the kiln is sited in the valley, beside the burn, near to the museum and visitor centre, so look out for it next time you're there.

This fully functional replica of a Roman up-draft pottery kiln, is based on information gained from the excavation of such kilns at archaeological sites across the North of England. The body of the kiln itself (1) is constructed entirely from a mixture of materials found on site, Clay, Earth and plant matter such as straw. The internal floor and central support, (2) also known as Kiln Furniture are made from specially selected clay which will survive repeated exposure to high temperatures.

While the kiln is cold, dry, raw pots are packed into the Ware Chamber (3) the top of the kiln is closed off with a temporary dome of clay and straw (4), leaving small holes as exit flues. A small fire is then lit in the Fire Box (5) allowing hot gasses and flames to pass through into the combustion chamber (6) then up through the ware chamber. Starting slowly and steadily building up the fire the the pots are brought up to a temperature of between 8000 and 10000 Centigrade.

The first firing took many hours of constant stoking as we not only needed to fire the pots, but to dry out the structure of the kiln itself. Nevertheless we achieved a temperature of between 700 & 800 degrees Centigrade, hot enough to fire the kiln load which included two amphorae.

This type of kiln would have been used by potters working in this region, to manufacture coarse wares such as Black Burnished Ware and Gray Ware cooking pots, indented bakers, plates, bowls, flagons and the like. While fine wares such as Samian Ware, Terra Sigillata and the Aphorae that carried produce around the empire would have been imported from production sites in Gaul and elsewhere in the Roman World.

The latest firing of this kiln is recorded here Firing the Vindolanda Kiln

From now on I will be running regular Roman pottery workshops at Vindolanda where you will be able to learn the techniques and skills that went into making the ceramics of the Roman Empire. Workshops and courses will include: Kiln Building & Firing; Samian Ware; Barbotine Ware; Black Burnished Ware; Lamps & Goddesses; The Potters' Wheel, Roman Head Pots. For more information on these workshops, follow me on Twitter @PottedHistory, visit the Vindolanda website or email me info@pottedhistory.co.uk.

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Neolithic, Bronze-Age & Roman Pottery Making Classes/Workshops 2017

You may have seen me, in Further Tales from Northumberland on ITV, teaching Robson Green to make a Roman pot. You could do far better, (sorry Robson) if you join me on one of my one day pottery workshops coming up soon, email or phone to book:

Roman Barbotine Pottery Sunday  26th March 2017: Learn about this roman slip trailing technique and make your own Roman Hunt cup, or celebrate the Roman Circus by making Chariot Racing & Gladiator Cups. One day workshop £65

Roman Samian Ware - Saturday & Sunday  8the & 9th April 2017: Learn about the pottery that conquered the ancient world, by making your Roman pottery tools then creating a replica Samian Ware Bowl. Two day workshop £98

Prehistoric Pottery - Saturday  22nd April 2017
Learn the basics of Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery, making your own Prehistoric pottery tool kit then creating and decorating replica Beakers and Bowls. One day workshop £65

These workshops are designed for adults. No previous experience is necessary, but if you have made pots before or have an interest in archaeology, they will add to your skills and knowledge of the subject. They combine basic pottery making techniques and history, but most of all they are fun.

Contact me for further information:
Email; info@pottedhistory.co.uk
Phone; 01669 621238
Mobile; 07989871504
Twitter; @pottedhistory

Potted History
Gregory Court
Rothbury
Northumberland
NE65 7PJ

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Replicating The Aldbourne Cup

I always enjoy what I do, but lately I've had some amazing commissions, here's the story of one of them: Towards the end of 2015 I was contacted by John Dymond and Alan Heasman, from the Aldbourne Heritage Centre in Wiltshire, asking if I would be able to replicate the Aldbourne Cup for display in their museum. I knew the pot well or at least I thought I did: It was excavated by Cannon Greenwell, in October 1878, from a Bronze Age barrow near the village. Normally my replicas recreate a pot as it looked on the day it was first made, however after some discussion and various meetings of members of the Aldbourne Heritage

I had replicated it on numerous occasions based on drawings and photographs but I decided to make an appointment to visit the British Museum, the cup's current home, and have a close look at it. I'm really glad that I did, because what hadn't been obvious from the images, was the fact that the perforations that formed the decoration, were circular rather than square. Many Bronze-Age beakers, food vessels and the like, are decorated by impressing a shallow toothed comb into the wet clay, forming dotted lines. These combs are almost invariably made by cutting grooves across the edge of a flat piece of bone or antler, this results in a row square or rectangular teeth. The Aldbourne cup on the other hand, had been decorated with a comb composed of round pins, probably three 2mm pins placed in a row and sharpened at the tips to produce 1mm holes spaced 1mm apart. As luck would have it the same burial produced 2 bronze pins pretty much fitting this description, which previous investigators had suggested may have been tattooing tools. A little research yielded images of Polynesian tattooing combs, that informed my reconstruction of a tool suitable for decorating the pot.

Another peculiarity of the decoration was that, while I knew that there were two holes passing through the wall of the pot, as there are with quite a few examples of accessory vessels, in this case some of the impressed decoration actually appeared to go right through the wall of the pot. I believe that this was accidental and occurred where impressions on the outside and inside, exactly coincided with one another.

One reason why such deep decoration might be desirable is if it was intended to be filled with some contrasting coloured material for decorative effect. When looking at the original, it did appear to me that this might be the case ad I thought that in some of the holes I could detect evidence of a lighter material. For this reason I went back to the Heritage Centre members asking the question “to inlay or not to inlay”. Warwick Hood, who had done considerable research, and presented a paper to the Aldbourne Heritage Group on the subject of the cup, kindly pointed out the following reference in Canon Greenwell's 1890 Archaeolgia article, entitled “Recent Researches in Barrows in Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, etc.”:

"There is one particular in which it is of much interest, and which has not hitherto, I believe, been observed in pottery from a British barrow. The impressions forming the pattern, and which have been made by a sharp-pointed tool, probably a bronze pricker, have been filled in with some white material like finely powdered chalk applied when in a semi-liquid state. This white material was certainly not the result of the vessel being in contact with chalk, for the surrounding earth was very dark coloured and without any admixture of chalk whatever."

The Aldbourne IV barrow had in fact contained two Aldbourne Cups and in this case Greenwell is referring to the second. Nevertheless the evidence suggested that this had been the case with both the cups and the decision was made, that in the case of the cup in original state, white chalk paste would be applied. This was done by crushing chalk to a paste with a little water, rubbing it into the decoration of the fired pot, polishing off the excess and sealing it into place with a layer of beeswax. I knew it would dramatically change the appearance of the pot, but I probably wasn't prepared for just how stunning it would look. I learned so much more but watch out for a paper later.

Although the Aldbourne Heritage Centre has been open during it's development, I was delighted to be invited to attend the official opening, along with Phil Harding of Time Team fame and Neil Wilkin, Curator, British and European Bronze Age Collection at the British Museum, where the replicas were officially handed over to the Centre.

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Roman Samian Ware or Terra Sigillata Pottery Workshop

Just had a great weekend running a Roman Samian Ware or Terra Sigillata workshop here in my Rothbury studio, and if you like the sound of it, you might like to join me on my next one. Email me if you're interested info@pottedhistory.co.uk.

A great group of participants have made their own set of Samian Ware punches based on designs from original archaeological finds. Punches were used by Roman potters; impressed into the inner surfaces of moulds in order to transfer their patterns onto decorated pots and bowls. That's exactly what the people at my workshop did, using their own punches along with some of my own to build up their own design. While some of the participants had a go on my momentum wheel, I'd made a blank mould for each of them, to ensure that everyone went home with a finished mould.

Now the next part of the process is to fire the moulds, but as it wasn't possible to get the moulds fired, as this can only be done after several days of drying, the participants used some of my own moulds for actually making their pot. As the mould spins quickly on the wheel, clay is firmly pressed into it to pick up all the decoration, then it is set aside to dry overnight. After a few hours the pot has dried to leather-hard and shrunk back from the mould, sufficiently to allow it to be removed. 

It now goes back onto the wheel, but this time upside down, a ring of clay is applied, shaped and smoothed to form a foot-ring. 

After drying again, the pot is dipped into the specially prepared colloidal slip, which dries to the beautiful satin sheen that makes Samian Ware so special. In addition to making some great replicas the participants learned about the history of Arretine and Samian ware, about the ceramic chemistry that makes this pottery so special, about the amazingly advanced kiln designs that made it so durable that it emerges from the ground looking brand new after two thousand years, about the slip trailing technique that decorated closed forms not suitable for mould making and hopefully much more.

Most importantly everyone had fun!

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Neolithic Carinated Bowl: complex simplicity

At first glance a Neolithic carinated bowl, the earliest type of pottery in Britain, looks like a very simple pot. Certainly they were hand formed often from very coarse natural clay, to function as humble cooking pots. In fact when making an average sized bowl, up to about 20cm in diameter, its form flows almost naturally from the process itself. The curve of the bowl nestles nicely in the hand, the concave form of the upper body conforms to the curve of the thumb, while the fingers stretch down inside to push out the carnation.  All well and good, but when one comes to make a bowl as big as the one I made for Stonehenge, it's a different matter.  For a start there's the weight; at over thirty centimetres in diameter it requires nearly five kilos of coarse clay in its construction. This makes it virtually impossible to hold the soft vessel in one hand.  If I start building on a base (flat stone, grass mat whatever is handy) this gives it a flat base, which can only be expanded out once the clay has stiffened.  Alternatively working into the base of an old broken pot does allow one to make a round bottomed piece but only to a predetermined form and, as clay shrinks on drying it will easily release from its "mould" but will also be considerably smaller than the former.  Once the pot becomes firm enough to support itself it can be picked up and worked on but this brings with it its own problems, the stiffened clay becomes brittle, the least deformation of the rim and the pot will crack, a flaw which, in the firing, could result in total failure.  One possible solution to this is to add organic fibrous material which will act as reinforcement in the unfired pot and one of the most suitable sources of this is animal dung. Finally, once the pot has reached a leather hard stage, the entire inner and outer surfaces need to me slip coated by rubbing with a wet hand and finally burnished all over, again without putting undue stress on the rim.

Firing small pots in an open fire is a relatively simple matter provided a strict set of rules are adhered to, a large pot on the other hand is quite a different matter. That pot needs to be absolutely dry before it comes anywhere near to a flame. In a Neolithic hut it would undoubtedly have spent several days on the outer edges of the hearth, occasionally being turned to present a new face to the warmth of the fire.  Only once the potter was certain that all moisture had left the clay would the firing process begin: The pot would be moved a little closer to the fire, inverted, and with its rim supported on three stones a few embers from the fire would have been pushed underneath its dome, their rising smoke and heat filling the vessel. Replenishing and increasing this small glowing fire over the next couple of hours the potter would have carefully and steadily raised the temperature until, at around about 400 degrees C the organic matter in the clay would have begun to burn, turning the outer surface of the pot dark brown or black.  This would also be an indication that it was ready to move to the next stage of firing, surrounding the pot with embers and eventually immersing the pot into the fire, bringing up its temperature until at seven or eight hundred degrees, in the darkness of the hut interior it could be seen to glow deep red. The firing complete, the fire would have been allowed to burn down and go out and the pot would have been cooled while protecting it from sudden cold draughts that might cause it to crack.

Simple as that!

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Replica Egyptian Canopic Jars

A set of canopic jars with their storage chest made recently for Maidstone Museum's educational handling collection.

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Hebridean Bronze Age Replicas

Just finishing work on a replica Cordoned Urn and Food Vessel for a client.

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Kiln Floor in Production

You might be forgiven for thinking that it's National Boring Photograph Day but this pic does illustrate the fact that, while we are in the grips of winter here in Rothbury, work on the Roman kilns is going ahead.  These clay bars will form the floor of the firing chamber and will be laid, radiating out from a central support like the spokes of a wheel, allowing the flames to pass up from the firebox and combustion chamber, see Roman Sunken Kiln Under Construction below.

Kiln bars drying in the workshop

  I haven't been back to the Westhills kiln since my last blog on the subject and my work on the York kiln got rained off after three days.  In this time I did however get the sunken part of the kiln dug out and most of the raised chamber wall built and clay lined.  It's actually mixing the clay and soil that takes the time, if I was working on an actual Roman Pottery production site with a high clay content in the soil I would simply add water.  As it is the soil on site is mostly sand and builders rubble so needs careful sorting and clay adding to it.

York kiln - lining the chamber with clay

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Magic Sites in Northumberland

Simonside & the Coquet Valley from Castle Hill

Today was our day off, a luxury that we allow ourselves now and again. Today we decided to wander round a few of the more remote archaeological sites in North Northumberland. Few visitors to Northumberland ever leave the main tourist route of Coast and Castles and they really miss a treat, in this county you really can get far from the madding crowd. Our first stop was the Iron Age hill fort on Castle Hill above Alnham. It's hard to find, you're not alerted to its presence by its silhouette on the horizon, as you are with many of the other hill forts. The approach is via a single track, unfenced road, which passes Alnham church (a gem in itself but that's for another day) and snakes its way up the hillside, through a farm yard and over a ridge heading into the heart of the Cheviots. It's at this point that you have to find somewhere to leave the car. No brown boards, interpretation signs or National Trust car park to welcome you. An unpromising narrow sheep track leads up the hill, through a couple of gates onto the top. Suddenly you are presented with a breathtaking view, over deeply dug ancient bank and ditch ramparts, to my beloved Coquet Valley and the Simonside Hills in the South and the snow covered Cheviots to the North and West. When I was last here, about four or five years ago, rabbits were rapidly digging away the banks, this now seems to have abated, possibly because they have realised that the thin topsoil masks ramparts composed almost entirely of sharp Cheviot redstone lavas.

Now I’ve called today’s blog 'Magic Sites in Northumberland' which may be a little romantic but as we sat on the ramparts looking out at the view the sun broke thorough the clouds and the silence was broken by the song of rising skylarks all around us. It really was pretty magical but an even more magical site awaited us.

From Alnham we headed for Milfield and a great lunch at the Milfield Country Café, after which I bought a useful little book by Archaeologist Clive Waddington; ‘Maelmin a pocket guide to archaeological walks'. Walks centered around the Maelmin Heritage trail. One in particular caught my eye, a place that I have meant to visit for years, Roughtin Lynn.

The waterfall, Roughtin Lynn (or Linn), is hidden in an overgrown gorge with, dare I say it, a quite magical atmosphere. It's not a big waterfall, it's certainly doesn't carry a large volume of water, but it is a very beautiful waterfall. Most importantly as far as I'm concerned it lies at the heart of an ancient landscape containing England's single largest rock art site, which did not disappoint, right next to a deeply ditched and banked enclosure, which may be a strangely placed hill fort but is possibly much older. This site certainly warrants a second visit and it will get one.

Anyway, back to the workshop I've got to make potters wheels for my forthcoming Roman Pottery workshop and canopic jars for a couple of museums.

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Ancient Pottery Workshops

The first workshop went really well, on the Monday we even managed to fire everything we had made, in the hearth of an Iron-Age Rondhouse, at Brigantium. So on to the next workshops and they are as follows:

Ancient pottery workshops by GRAHAM TAYLOR at the Coach House, Elsdon.

ROMAN SAMIAN WARE
May 15th & 16th.
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ROMAN WHEEL MADE POTTERY –One day workshop
June 22nd.
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PREHISTORIC POTTERY
July 24th & 25th.

MANY OTHER DATES WILL BE AVAILABLE.

GROUPS CAN BOOK ADDITIONAL DATES AND WORKSHOPS CAN BE DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR YOUR REQUIREMENTS, PLEASE CONTACT ME

NO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE IS REQUIRED FOR ANY OF THESE WORKSHOPS.

The cost of all workshops includes: Rita’s great home made Coach House Lunches, coffee/tea breaks, all materials, and firing of the pots.

These workshops are intended for adults, although some young Advanced Learners may benefit from them, but must be accompanied by a paying adult. Please ask about suitability before booking for a young person. Payment for the workshop can be made by cheque, debit/credit card to secure a booking.

All materials and equipment will be provided. All pots and tools that you make during the workshop are yours to keep. Information sheets will be provided to help you continue potting once you return home.

Accommodation and travel are not included but list of local accommodation providers is available on request. Elsdon is situated in the Northumberland National Park and you will need your own transport as it is virtually impossible to reach it by public transport.

ROMAN WHEEL MADE POTTERY: Learn the ancient skills of the potters’ wheel using an authentic reconstruction of a Roman wheel.

ROMAN SAMIAN WARE: The most prestigious pottery of the Roman era Samian Ware was produced on the wheel and in moulds. This workshop will teach you the techniques of mould making and pot making.

BRONZE-AGE POTTERY WORKSHOP: This workshop will equip participants to; prospect for natural clay and prepare it for pot making; make their own prehistoric tool kit; make and decorate replicas of prehistoric pots and fire them in an authentic manner.

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Replica Pots for Christmas....what else?

I am guessing that all the people who ordered from me, replica pots for their loved ones, will by now have given them so that I can now reveal a couple of my favourites. Firstly I there's this replica of a Bronze Age food vessel excavated from the Bawearie Cairns at Old Bewick, Northumberland, by Canon William Greenwell in 1866, which I made for one of the Archaeologists involved in the More recent excavations of the same cairns. The original pot is in the British Museum.



Then there is this replica of a Neolithic, Mortlake Bowl made for another Archaeologist:

This one is decorated using a whipped cord tool to produce what are known as "maggot marks". Both have been open fired in a "bonfire" firing just as their archetypes would have been.

Visit my website at www.pottedhistory.co.uk

Mediaeval Pottery Kiln at Shotton

A few days ago I was invited to visit the archaeological excavation of a pottery production site at Shotton, to the north of Newcastle upon Tyne. This site is sceduled for surface coal extraction by Banks Development and has been excaveted in advance of this by Tyne and Wear Museums. What they have found is a small medieval settlement with evidence of pottery production including a kiln and clay extraction pits. The whole site is on solid clay a fact that has made the conditions in the trenches less than pleasant. As you can see in this photograph of the kiln mud and ice were the order of the day but they were kind enough to remove the ice and pump out the water so that I could inspect it. These conditions suggest that some of the post holes around the kiln must surely have been supports for a roof, otherwise the kiln would have been inoperable during most of the year.

I have taken clay samples from the site with the intention of firing them under an assortment of different firing conditions so that they can be compared with the potsherds from the excavation.