Pottery from Mount Caburn, East Sussex


As discussed in a previous post the Excavating Pitt-Rivers team has been working on cataloguing the ceramic material excavated by General Pitt-Rivers at Mount Caburn - an Iron Age hillfort on the South Downs near Lewes, East Sussex - in the summers of 1877 and 1878. This assemblage of material represents one of the earliest ever made through a modern scientific open-area excavation. It is a very large assemblage, comprising approximately 3,472 sherds of pottery from this single site. Most of the pottery is Iron Age in date. Below is a brief discussion of some of the different types of pottery in the assemblages.

Material:
The majority of the ceramic material consists of sherds from pottery vessels. From visual examination of the ceramic fabrics it is evident that five different tempers – non-plastic inclusions added to clay to alter the physical and/or mechanical properties of the clay - were used; fine sand, coarse sand, shell, grog and burnt flint.
Photographs of the five different tempers used in the pottery excavated from Mount Caburn. Left to right - fine sand (PRM 1884.137.37 .3), coarse sand (PRM 1884.137.38 .10), shell (PRM 1884.137.3.101), grog (PRM 1884.137.5 .2) and burnt flint (PRM 1884.137.1 .25).
Production method:
The majority, if not all, of the pottery is hand-made. There is evidence for the coil and drawn techniques. A number of sherds have fractured along the coil joins and others have finger impressions from where the clay has been moulded into shape.
In the middle of this sherd is a finger impression - this indicates that the original vessel was handled prior to drying and may even be evidence of the production technique used whilst making it. (PRM 1884.137.35 .150)
Decoration/surface treatments:
The pottery is largely undecorated. However a number of the grog-tempered sherds appear to have had their surfaces wiped, leaving striations on the surfaces in random orientations. The following photographs show a range of decoration and surface treatments that we have found.

A number of the decorated sherds have these sub-triangular impressions - these will have been made using a broken bone, twig or similar implement. (PRM 1884.137.11 .16)
This sherd shows fine horizontal linear impressions in a herringbone design along the top of the rim and a series of overlapping curved lines that have been incised under the rim. (PRM 1884.137.19 .24)
Two moulded bands run just underneath this rim sherd. The bands have also been impressed with small horizontal lines. (PRM 1884.137.39 .1)
This vessel has been burnished - this is where the vessel is polished, in its leather-hard state, using a pebble, or similar implement, to create a shiny surface. There are a number of sherds from Mount Caburn that have been burnished. (PRM 1884.137.35 .20)
Firing:
The majority of the pottery sherds are reduce fired, some with oxidized outer surfaces and others show uneven firing environments. 
The grog tempered sherds are much softer in texture and still feel like they have not completely cintered, the fractured surfaces are also heavily abraded. This indicates that this particular wear wasn't fired to high enough temperatures to completely transform the clay into ceramic.
A couple of sherds have evidence of spalling. Spalling is when the ceramic explodes during firing. It occurs when the drying process is not complete. The water that remains in the clay expands when it turns to gas during the firing process which causes the ceramic to explode, or spall. If one pot fails in this way it often causes the entire batch that is being fired to fail.
Evidence of spalling (PRM 1884.137.31.62)

Watercolour of Barrow Excavations at Whitmoor Common, Surrey in May 1877


Yesterday we published a transcription of Pitt-Rivers' account of his excavations in May 1877 of Bronze Age and early medieval barrows - 'On Tumuli near Guildford'. Above is an additional item related to that post: a watercolour view of the excavations, described in that account, of the two Bronze Age barrows at Whitmoor Common, near Whorplesdon, Surrey. 

The watercolour is held by the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum (Pitt-Rivers papers, item R7e), and is one of the earliest examples of Pitt-Rivers' technique of combining accurate, measured recording of excavations with more artistic or playful colour depictions of the excavation process - and, in this case, even one of the excavators!

Further Reading
English, J. 2011. Excavation of two Bronze Age barrows on Whitmoor Common, Worplesdon by General A H Lane Fox (Pitt Rivers). Surrey Archaeological Collections 96.

Gardner, E. 1924 Bronze Age urns of Surrey. Surrey Archaeological Collections 35: 1-29.
Lane Fox, A.H. 1877. On some Saxon and British Tumuli near Guildford. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, pp. 116-117.

On Tumuli near Guildford, Surrey

The Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum holds a series of manuscript and archival materials relating to General Pitt-Rivers. Among these is an unpublished account of his excavations of six Saxon barrows at Merrow Down in October 1876, and of two Bronze Age barrows at Whitmore Common in May 1877 - all of which are located near Guildford in Surrey. The manuscript is titled 'On Tumuli near Guildford' (P40). A transcription of this manuscript by the project team is posted below. Clearly drafted for publication, it vividly describes the excavations, and the recovery of a Saxon knife which survives in the Pitt Rivers Museum today. Written in the General's own hand, this previously unpublished paper also reflects on the changes in practices of cremation and burial during the early medieval period. Pitt-Rivers lived at Guildford between 1874 and 1878. He delivered a version of this paper at the 47th meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Plymouth in August 1877. A precis was published in the Report for that meeting in (Lane Fox 1878), and a summary of this manuscript was published by Saunders (1980).



'On Tumuli Near Guildford' by Colonel Augustus Lane Fox
Whitmoor Common
'Col A Lane Fox first described a British tumulus opened by him upon Whitmoor Common near Guildford on the 16th and 17th May 1877 with permission of the landowner Lord Onslow. It was situated on the south-east side of the common near the railway bridge, and a cart road from the village of Worplesdon passed over the lower portion of the tumulus.  The Tumulus was of low elevation, being not more than 2ft in height above the surface and about 37 feet in diameter. Trenches were dug simultaneously from the north and the south, and of sufficient width to embrace the whole mound. 

'The natural soil was defined by hard clay distinguishing it from the natural of the mound, which was of a sandy nature.  No grave was found beneath this level, and it was evident that the actual interment whether burnt or not must have been placed on the surface of the ground and then [illegible] and [illegible] over it, but no trace of it remained.  Near the centre lower in the body of the mound, 3 British Urns were found at a distance of 3 to 4 feet from each other, each containing burnt bones. The urns had all been put in with the mouth down, and the tops on so that the proper bottoms of the urns were so near the surface that that they were all more or less broken by the traffic over the mound, and by which it had no doubt been considerably reduced from it original height.


Eric Gardner's 1924 account of 'The Bronze Age Urns of Surrey' reproduced two plans and sections (reproduced above) of the barrow excavations at Whitmore Common, prepared for publication by Pitt-Rivers but not published at the time. Gardner reported that 'though General Pitt-Rivers never published any account of his excavation on Whitmore Common, he undoubtedly intended to, and a carefully prepared plan was made and a proof printed. By an amazing piece of good fortune, this proof came into the hands of Mr Frank Lasham of Guildford, who obtained it from one of Pitt-Rivers' assistants many years ago. He has kindly allowed it to be reproduced' (Gardner 1924: 29).

'The largest urn was in the centre. It was 1 foot 5 inches in height and 4 feet in circumference, somewhat of a barrel shape, and ornamental with a raised band all round at about 6 inches from the rim.  The other two were smaller, being 10 inches in height and 8 inches in diameter. One of these was ornamental with 5 raised bosses a few inches below the rim. The natural of all three was of an extremely coarse kind, badly baked, and interspersed with minute fragments of some pieces of white shell.  One of the small ones was got out mostly perfect but the others broke into fragments, and can with difficulty be repaired. Sketches of them however were taken whilst they were in situ showing their exact position before they were taken out. 

'It is evident that this was a British Barrow of the Bronze Age. Probably the urns contained secondary interments but it is just possible from the fact of the large urn having been in the centre that it may have been the original interment for which the barrow was erected. 

'The floor was dug throughout the cutting for some distance in search of an actual grave but none was found.  The section across the centre showed first a layer of one foot of blackish peat, then one foot of yellow sand, & below that the clayey floor.

'It is here notable that all the fragments of broken flint were found here and there which did not belong to the soil. No trace of a flake or bulb of percussion was found on any of them.  This shows that the practice of throwing flakes onto the mound, though very usual in interments of this age, was not universal. Slightly different customs no doubt prevailed in different localities, and this is more reasonable than to suppose that this tumulus belonged to an age when this custom had died out; because there is good reason to believe from excavations of the Roman age lately made at both Seaford and Hardham in Sussex that the practice of putting flakes with the grave continued amongst the Romanised Britons.

'Close to this, on the same Common, Col. Fox opened another tumulus much smaller, not any more than 18 feet in diameter, and one foot three inches in height.  No central grave was found beneath this but a layer of black soil probably the result of fire was discovered further beneath the surface, and in the centre a small hole was clearly seen in the smooth sandy section not more than 2 feet from the tumulus and about the same diameter. 
There, no doubt, a burnt body had been deposited but no trace of the bones remained.  The sand of this district, admitting the rainwater freely, is very unfavourable with preservation of bone especially so close to the surface.  Here above the line of black mould numerous fragments of charcoal were discovered and an immense quantity of burnt but no trace of a flake or implement of any kind. 

Merrow Down
'Col. Fox then described six tumuli which he opened on Merrow Down, 3 miles to the south of the former locality, accurate sections of which were exhibited. Four of them were in a cluster on the top of the hill just south of Level’s Dean. They were so small that they had never been noticed as tumuli, and Col. Fox was himself in doubt when he commenced whether they would turn out to be graves.  The first was 24 feet in diameter & one foot three in height. The section clearly shows the process that had taken place: a hole 2 foot in diameter had been dug in the green sward about 15 inches deep, at the bottom of it beneath the surface mould which is 10 inches thick, and extended 5 inches into the chalk beneath.

'Then the body – which had been burnt elsewhere, for no trace of charcoal or burning was found here – had been brought and deposited in the hole with earth, the numerous fragments of a burnt body being found just about the top of the hole. Then the tumulus was raised over the interment.  This was the norm but the practice differed even in the same cluster of tumuli.  The second was 33 feet to the west of the first. It was 11 feet in diameter and only 8 inches [in] greatest height – in fact scarcely perceptible, but a green spot of grass in the centre showed that there was something unusual in the soil beneath. In fact, immediately the turf was removed burnt earth for a space of four feet in diameter was found beneath, and a burnt body one foot beneath the top.  There was no trace of a hole here, but the burnt bones were an inch or two beneath the natural surface. If the hole did not extend into the chalk it would not be perceived in the section.  This body must either have been burnt on the spot or the burnt earth must have been brought with the body and interred with it.  There was no object in culture of these two graves to denote the age of the burials or the people by whom they were made.

'The third tumulus of the cluster was the most important of the cluster because it determined the date of the whole. It was 50 feet to the NW of the last, 13 feet in diameter, and one foot [in] greatest height.  It had a green spot of grass in the centre.  Like the last, immediately on removing the turf, black earth was found as before in a circle of 4 feet diameter. A small flint core and a flint chip lay under the turf, but this may have been accidental.  In the black earth was a quantity of charcoal which had not been found in the other tumuli. Two or three pieces of burnt bone – the remains of a body that had decayed – were found in this black mould, and on the same level (5 inches from the top, and 2 feet to the west of the centre) an iron Saxon knife 6 inches long – including the tang of 1½ inch, and ¾ inch [in] greatest breadth. This iron knife is of the well known Saxon type, not altogether unlike a pen knife in form, & having near the back the groove, which is so well known in connection with Saxon weapons. It determines the whole cluster to be of the pagan Saxon period, before their conversion to Christianity when they ceased to burn their dead, and began to bury extended in the usual Christian fashion.  It was evident that this body was burnt on the spot as beneath the black earth and charcoal was found a seam of red burnt earth where the fire had been. 


The knife described by Pitt-Rivers survives in the Pitt Rivers Museum today (Accession Number 1884.121.11), and is illustrated above

'Three other tumuli were opened close by. They were of the same form but nothing was found in them.  It is evident however from their unusually small size & the similarity of the contents of those which had any, that the iron knife determines the age of the whole group.  It is not often that in connection with tumuli we are able to answer the question so often put to us determine their date in years.  Here however we can’t be far wrong in saying that the interments were made between the years 500 & 600 Anno Domini, that is landing of Hengest in 477 and the conversions of Augustine in 597.  Probably the first and only important change of habits which accompanied these events was their alteration in the mode of burial. There is good reason for supposing that cremation was actively abandoned at this time.'

Transcribed by Judith White and edited by Dan Hicks. From Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, Pitt-Rivers manuscripts, item P40.

References & Further Reading



Gardner, E. 1924 Bronze Age urns of Surrey. Surrey Archaeological Collections 35: 1-29.
Lane Fox, A.H. 1877. On some Saxon and British Tumuli near Guildford. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, pp. 116-117.
Saunders, P.R. 1980. Saxon Barrows excavated by General Pitt Rivers on Merrow Down, Guildford. Surrey Archaeological Collections 72: 69-75.