Black-burnished ware shards

Found on excavation near Barburgh Mill, this type of pottery was produced in Dorset and found at Roman sites throughout Britain.   These objects were found at the site of a former Roman Fort at Barburgh Mill which was excavated in 1971. The following information comes from David J. Breeze ,and was published in the Journal Britannia in 1974:   "[the fort] measured 29·50 m by 28·50 m within its single ditch and turf rampart. The entrance was defended by a gate of six timbers probably surmounted by a tower. It contained two timber buildings in plan appropriate for an infantry century. A latrine lay in one corner of the fortlet and two possible hearths between the two buildings. The fortlet was surrounded on the north and east by an outer rampart and ditch and the resulting enclosure subdivided by a medial ditch. The entrance of the outer enclosure was undefended. There was only one structural phase represented at the site and the pottery suggests a date in the Antonine I period, c. 142-58. When the site was abandoned the buildings were probably burnt, the rampart slighted and broken and surplus pottery dumped in the ditches."