Pottery from Marine Sites Around Guernsey
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Pottery from Marine Sites Around Guernsey Jason Monaghan Guernsey Maritime Trust During the past ten years there has been a growing Guernsey an attractive landmark for those wishing to cut awareness that a considerable number of underwater the corner off the Atlantic-Channel route. Jersey is less archaeological sites exist around the island of Guernsey. attractive, tucked as it is amongst the perilous Minquiers The Guernsey Maritime Trust is currently investigating and Erechous reefs, whilst Alderney is renowned for its several of Roman date which have been reported by fierce tides. local diver Richard Keen (Keen 1979, 1986). Pottery is a well tried and tested indicator of ancient In the same period, the first conclusive evidence of trade routes. That reaching Guernsey did so for one of Roman occupation on land has also come to light three reasons: Roman ceramics have been found with the late Iron Age warrior burials at Kings Road (Burns 1986b, 94), on the 1. Cargo brought to the island for purpose of sale or first century rural settlement at Les Tronquesous (Burns exchange. 1978) and on the west coast (Sebire 1986). Within St 2. Cargo "in transit" destined elsewhere. 3. Private possessions of ships crew (or passengers). Peter Port, Roman buildings have been uncovered close to the ancient shoreline at La Plaiderie (Burns 1986b, All of the above three are intimately linked with "trade" 95) with typical pottery assemblages from the mid in a purer sense of the word than often applies in second to fourth century AD. Until the recent past, only ceramic studies. Whether the pottery itself or its the Romano-Celtic temple at the Pinnacle, Jersey contents is the object of trade, it may still be regarded (Finlaison 1928) and the suspected "Saxon Shore" as "cargo". The act of transfer from ship to shore may station at the Nunnery, Alderney (Johnson 1976, 81) not have been anything more sophisticated than barter or have suggested a role for the Channel Islands in the exchange of a few pots. The cargo need not be more Roman period. than part loads or deck cargo: the heterogeneity of Ceramic fmds from Guernsey are only now enlarging ceramic finds seen in the islands so far does not suggest this limited picture. The scope for an island-based it arrived in large consignments. It is possible that an ceramic industry is highly restricted: the "local" pottery amount of exchange took place between ships, ranging style is therefore borrowed from Armorica (for example, from the cross-decking of cargoes down to the swapping Burns 1987, 32-33). The cross section of traded wares of individual items by the crews. to some extent mirrors that seen on the Gallic coast at Ceramics found on marine sites were deposited by Alet (Fulford 1974). Having little, if any, ceramic one of three processes: production of its own, the island will one day provide a useful guide to the mechanics of pottery distribution. a. Lost with the ship that carried it There are none of the "edge effects" caused by b. Discarded or lost overboard. overlapping regional industries and ephemeral local c. Being carried from littoral or land sites by rubbish concerns encountered when studying pottery supply to disposal practices. tidal action, erosion and engineering a mainland site. Two of the imponderable questions in activities such as landfill or dredging. any economic survey can immediately be answered: all the quality wares have been imported; all came by sea. Seabed finds can be assessed as to which of the Guernsey, of all the islands in the archipelago, categories 1-3 and a-c they belong. If the ceramic finds possesses the best natural harbour. It is therefore well contain a low degree of variety. then it may be suited to act as a haven for ships on the coastal routes postulated that they are cargo (1 or 2). High variety around Armorica. This has curiously been neglected in suggests accumulation rather than bulk purchase (3). If previous studies of cross-channel trade (Fulford 1977, the sherds are concentrated, a shipwreck is a possible McGrail 1983 and to some extent Galliou 1986 and cause (a). Isolated finds are likely to have arrived by Fulford 1987). The tendency for ancient ships to hug the less dramatic means of accidental loss or deliberate coasts, steering within sight of land also makes disposal (b). Redeposited rubbish (c) stands out as there 64 Jason Monaghan ALDERNEY ·8 GUERNSEYm S~'r( ~ JERSEY -=o 5 10,m GUERNSEY o ~ ~HOU SI Peler Pori ·5 N 2- l om 4 ·6 r i km Fig. 1: Approximate positions of Roman Marine sites around Guernsey tends to be a high variety of smaller, abraded pieces, as the ship plied the Atlantic coasts of Spain, France with very few matching sherds other than fresh match and traversed the Channel. Two ceramique a I' eponge breaks. bowls echo the postulate made by Fulford (1977, 45) With these processes in mind, we can now examine that this fabric was imported into Britain on the back of the evidence that has so far been prized from the the wine trade from SW Gaul. The kitchen ware is BB 1 seabed. All drawings are at one quarter scale unless and pseudo-BB 1 mixed with gallic greywares. Spanish stated. and Algerian amphorae complete the cosmopolitan collection (Monaghan 1987b). St Peter Port Pierheads wreck The most spectacular find has been that of a St Peter Port Harbour Gallo-Roman "caboteur" between the pier heads of the In addition to pottery deemed to have originally been on harbour (Fig. 1). Some 25 metres in length, it is dated board the ship, a great variety of other Romano-British by coins to soon after AD 280. This is to be published and Gallo-Roman pots were recovered loose from the shortly by Rule and Monaghan. The small amount of bed of the harbour around the wreck. Usually occurring pottery on board indicated that this was the crew's as single sherds or part complete vessels, these have the personal effects, with the major cargo possibly carried characteristics of typical harbour gash: thrown overboard in barrels. Most sherds came from what is deemed to be from ships or carried into the water by the redeposition the galley area at the rear of the ship. The mix of vessel of rubbish from land sites adjacent to the ancient haven. types, styles and provenance is suggestive of a kitchen In particular, the area known as "Cow Bay" just to the set progressively built up from many different sources north of the reef which Castle Comet is built upon (Fig. Jason Monaghan 65 3), has yielded much material of this nature (Burns holding down a portion of ship's structure. Unlike the 1986a, 654). The littoral situation of the Cow Bay site amphorae found on the pierheads wreck, the six suggests an accumulation of land-derived material. recovered from Little Russel "A" were so uniform as to There are no pottery concentrations in the harbour suggest cargo items. mouth area which suggest further concealed Roman wrecks. The stray fmds show a great diversity of source 18-23) (l/8th) Spanish amphora of type Beltran IIB/panella and date, starting with the late Iron Age and running LVIII (Peacock and Williams 19). Dated from the through Roman, Merovingian and Medieval to modem Tiberian-Claudian period to the mid second century styles. and thought to carry fish produce. A further amphora spike was dredged from the seabed 1) Grey-brown grog-tempered native bowl. Late Iron approximately one mile to the south-west of the castle Age. 2,3,6) Sandy grey wares, all in different fabrics. reef in 1968 (Fig. 5). Heavily eroded, its coarse sandy 4) Eastern Gaul sarnian fonn Dr. 31. texture suggests a Spanish origin. As the site lies under 5) "Vase tronconique" similar to second century North 40 metres of water, only further chance discoveries will Gaulish grey ware, but lacking a slip (Richardson show this is other than just an isolated find. and Tyers 1984). This is probably a "local" version of a popular type. Fermain Bay 7) Central Gaul sarnian fonn Dr 17. Just over a mile south of the harbour, Fermain (Fig. 1, 8) Black roulette decorated bowl of Saintonge type: 6) is one of the many small bays which nestle under the probably late first century, but the style had later cliffs of Guernsey. This occasionally yields Roman third century revivals (Santrot and Santrot 1979, pottery under certain tidal conditions and a heavy timber 133). structure is reported hidden below the low tide mark. 9) BB2 pie dish fonn 5Cl (Monaghan 1987a) of uncertain source. A sherd of folded beaker of class The most notable find from this area has been a Syrian 2J (Monaghan 1987a) was also found. Both these "carrot" amphora (Burns 1986a, 663). It is possible that vessels are outside what is considered their nonnal this inlet has at times been used as a landing stage as distribution area. British pottery is already well the fmds have so far had the "harbour gash" character recognised on the land sites, Oxford red ware and seen in St Peter Port. BBl being key discoveries. A BBl bowl G228 or G227 (Gillam 1970), similar to two others found at Boue Penney the Pinnacle in Jersey (Finlaison 1926) came from Half a mile north of the harbour, off the reefs of Boue the harbour mouth. Penney (Fig. 4) is a further possible wreck site. This has 10) Mortarium, described by K F Hartley below. so far yielded only a heavy corroded anchor and a badly 11) (l/8th) Dressel 20 olive oil amphora of late first to mid second century date (Peacock and Williams 38).