ID
14843
Permalink
Hoard name
BLACK PIECE ROMAN VILLA
Data type
Hoard
Date of discovery (from)
1 Jan 1940
(to)
31 Dec 1940
Total number of coins
0
Summary
Site discovered c.1897 by Thomas Halliday, who found pottery & coins. In Sept 1926 quarrying at 'Black Piece' revealed layer of iron slag & charcoal in large mound assoc. with steelyard & 2 lead weights, oyster shell, tile frags, RB pottery & a stylus, samian pottery & mid 3rd C. bronze coin. In c. 1975 Mr A L Tabor described work carried out & finds, incl. various walls. A rough wall of slag found in 1929, & in 1940 Mr Tabor reported excav. of remains of a building assoc. with 2nd C. pottery & coins, robbed then covered with 1.5 to 4 ft of soil & slag. This deposit contained numerous coins of 2nd half of 4th C. & pottery, also another steelyard & a bronze buckle. J K St Joseph noted soil marks indicating ancient disturbance of the surface over a considerable area. Material donated to Rutland County Museum in 1970. Tabor's c. 1975 notes detail various stone walls, longest of which 150' long & 2' wide. Tabor suggests this is a courtyard villa. A small room in SE corner c.10' square contained a pit with human neonate. Tabor says villa dismantled & covered by deposit of clean soil 2-8 inches thick (a natural deposit?) & then by deposit of slag, 6-in thick in S & thinning to N, which artefacts date to AD 340-400. 67 Roman coins are listed in an appendix, incl. a coin hoard (7 coins). Other finds incl. pottery, knives, brooches, bracelets, a spoon, dice, buckles, tweezers, pins, shears, brooches, a needle, an ear pick, a spearhead, & glass. Tile includes flue and roof and Collyweston slates. A project was undertaken on the pottery in 1994-5. Personal recollections of the dig at Black Piece were provided to the HER in 2010.
