Iron Age / Roman rimsherd
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Identification of the age of this pottery fragment would have been based largely on the fabric - the clay with its inclusions - and the style of rim. It was reckoned to be late Iron Age or early Roman by one of the archaeologists excavating Brislington Meadows in November 2021.
This 48mm wide sherd was found on the surface of the ground where the public footpath crossed a backfilled trench. It was cleaned up and photographed, and returned to the site where it was handed over to the excavators. Because it wasn't found in an archaeological context it wasn't included in the written report but it will have been preserved in the archive stored at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery.
The published Archaeological Evaluation report does record sherds excavated from Trench 7 (where this rimsherd was found), whose fabric was tempered with grog-and-quartz and dated to the 1st or 2nd century CE. From the similarity of the fabric, a layperson might suppose the description of the excavated finds matches the surface find, but these matters are subtle, so we can't claim a positive identification. A visit to the museum by an expert should settle the matter, but for now the question of whether this is the first known evidence of Iron Age people in Brislington, remains moot.
Material: ceramic
Period: Romano-British (or Iron Age)
Find spot: ST62557106 (field 516 in 1846 tithe map).
Exhibit contributed by Dawn Witherspoon
Text written by Ken Taylor (2023)
Photographer: Dawn Witherspoon (2021)
Acquisition number: 230506a1