Day Twelve: A finds special

Work continued on site for what was the last day of our second week at Monk Bretton. Drawing continued at the mill and excavation cracked on at the main site. In Trench One the main development was the investigation of two 'shaft' like features to the north of the fireplace range. These were the last features known to have been seen in the 1950s, but it was unclear what they might be. More will no doubt follow in future blogs.

The top of the two shaft features

Having reached the halfway point of the excavation, we thought we would take the opportunity to show the range of finds we've made, although these are just the tip of the iceberg. As with most archaeological sites, pottery is the most common artefact and we've found numerous sherds dating from the 12th to the 20th centuries. Given the context of the excavation the most interesting to us are the large numbers of 16th and 17th century wares, often associated with drinking. Below is a so called Cistercian ware cup or mug dating to the 16th century, which has a very distinctive decoration. We have also found lots of similar, but plainer 'blackware' cups (archaeologists aren't very original with their names at times), which date to the 17th century.

Cistercian ware cup

Glass was also a more common material for drinking vessels in the late medieval and Tudor periods than most people realise. Below are several fragments from a very well preserved drinking glass dating to the 15th or early 16th century. It is decorated with applied 'prunts' (blobs of glass) and was probably made in northern Germany.

Germanic prunted beaker

Not all finds are associated with drinking on the site, others tell us more about the overall appearance of the buildings. As well as sections of decorative stonewrok we've also been finding pieces of window leads. These were used to hold small shaped pieces of glass, known as quarries, together to form larger glazing schemes, just as can be seen in churches today.

Window leads

Occasionally we find things that connect us directly to the people who lived on the site. One such item was a very small 'mount' recovered by one of our sharp eyed diggers. Made from copper alloy it's now a dull green but when new would have been very shiny. Mounts like this were sewn onto items of clothing, and belts in particular, to give them added sparkle.

A tiny, tiny mount- early 'bling'

Perhaps our most interesting and unusual find (and yes it was found by 'lucky' Will...) was half of a rather ordinary vessel, mentioned in Wednesday's blog. This is the lower portion of a piece of distillation equipment. It has some form of internal copper deposit, perhaps to make coloured pigments? This type of find is very rare, although other examples have been found on both monastic sites such as Pontefract Priory and in domestic contexts like Sandal Castle. However, so far we reckon our 'residue' is pretty unique so can't wait to get a proper analysis of it.

A 'cucurbit' with internal deposit. "Purest green My Lord?"

So here is just a taster of the types of things we're uncovering, keep an eye out for another Finds Special next week