Three Pottery Finds from Eccles
[pg4]Some KAS members of long-standing will remember the many Reports written by Dr Detsicas on the excavation of a Roman Villa at Eccles. Dr Detsicas, as Director, was most anxious to have the publication of a complete book which would cover the work of many years (1962-1976). Unfortunately, although very fullsome notes and drawings covering plans of ancient building foundations had appeared in Volumes of Arch. Cant., under Interim Reports, See also Progress Report Vol. CVII 1989, a special write-up on the extensive finds of pottery, etc. is at present unavailable.
A very short article of only about one page on 'pottery wasters' appeared in the Antiquaries Journal Vol. LIV 1974. This brief note is based mainly on a description of three Roman vessels, small and or unfamiliar design. They were thought to have been rescued from a quantity of Kiln wasters. See illustration, Fig. 1, taken from the Antiquaries Journal. It shows the shape of one of these pots but the second vessel was slightly more globular, though of similar colour and fabric. The third was thought to have been underfired as it was of different quality and paler in colour.
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Dr Detsicas described them as being datable to about AD.65 but he could not deduce definitely a particular use to which these Roman pots could have been put. Soon after his short article was published this writer contacted him regarding a personal theory as to what use they could have had in a Roman household. However, he was not interested in the suggestions put to him at that time!
This, the following theory, may be considered by K.A.S. readers to be a somewhat 'way-out' thought that these pottery finds could have connections with some Ancient Egyptian pottery designs and shapes. It seems almost certain that the Eccles find was of three 'Spinning Buckets'. See illustration, Fig.2. Note the illustration of an Ancient Egyptian spinning scene shown on the wall of a 12th Dynasty tomb, at Beni Hasan, (circa 1991-1785 BC). This scene, one of many similar in various other local tombs ranging from 11th to 12th Dynasty, demonstrates just how these 'buckets' were used to promote an expert production of proper twisted, useable thread which could then be passed on to weavers at looms.
Buckets and baskets used for the same function were known to ladies of Rome. The British Museum has a number of decorated urns and vases with pictures of Roman women holding their spindles and placed beside [pg4]them was a bucket, or sometimes a same shaped basket, filled with rough combed thread and waiting to be hand spun. There are also ancient spindles on show with a decorated pot, shaped and painted to look like an elegant basket and designed to 'hold Wool'. It is approximately the same size as an Eccles pot.
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The unspun thread was pulled up by hand under tension to the spindle, allowing the finished thread to be made into whichever type the spinner required for use on a loom.
The cultivation of flax for the production of linen goes back for about 5,000 years in Egypt. It was harvested at different times of the year in order to make very fine cloth from treated young green stems, then to the other extreme, tough ripe fibres were gathered and, which when treated, could be made into ropes and mats. Hemp was also used from early times and could be spun into coarse textured cloth. The Romans in Britain also used wool for the weaving of warm cloth and clothing.
The Ancient Egyptian 'buckets' are very rare in most museums. There is quite a hefty one in the Petrie Museum (Egyptology Collection, University College, London). It is of unknown manufacture and the top half of the vessel is missing so the two internal pottery loops can be seen. Their ability to give tension to the combed material drawn up to the spindle by the spinner is usually made by a loop or loops of pottery being fixed on the interior wall of the pot or else could be drawn up through a top containjng holes. With the Eccles pots the unspun thread would be tensioned by drawing it up through the apex of a triangle cut out of the sides of the pot. Some expert spinners could use two spindles together with two types of rough thread or even two contrasting colours blended together but each colour would be drawn up through a separate triangular hole.
Dr Detsicas put forward the notion that each of the three pots - which may have been wasters, could have been the top tiers made for Roman chimney pots but he also remarked that they were soot-free and rather small. Another idea he had was that they might have been used to cover up a 'source of light' i.e. a small Roman lamp or 'candle'.
This writer is convinced that if they really were Kentish spinning buckets it is a very rare find and may have been used by textile workers in a Roman household of wealth and self-sufficiency.
Therefore, it is admirable of Dr Detsicas to have sorted them out as 'specials'. If the pots are avai1able for interested people to look at it would be splendid if they could be on show in Maidstone Museum, Kent.
Nesta Caiger.