News / Archaeology
Bronze Age and Roman artefacts found in Frenchay
Students at UWE Bristol who play sport at the university’s new Hillside Gardens sports complex will have more than just astroturf below their feet when it opens this autumn. Groundworks during the £4.5m construction project have been overseen by a team of archaeologists from Cotswold Archaeology, and the site has been turning up impressive Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman finds.
A Roman farmstead with a circular ditch that was likely a roundhouse was revealed, along with items including pottery dating from between the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age and from between the first and fourth centuries AD, and a complete quern stone (pictured above) which would have been used to grind grain into flour.
A selection of the pottery pieces found at the site
A glass bead was also found, which archaeologists say is is likely to have been from a necklace dating to the third or fourth centuries, as was part of a shale bracelet. These round bangles, most often made from shiny black materials including jet and shale are first seen in the Iron Age and continued to be worn into the early part of the Roman period.
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The portion of a shale bracelet that was found at the site
The most exciting finds were two copper-alloy coins dating from the Roman period. “Many rural Roman sites in Britain do not produce coins, however Hillside Gardens falls within the part of the country where coins at rural sites are much more common,” explained Tom Brindle, post-excavation manager at Cotswold Archaeology. “One of the coins is of Emperor Crispus, and was struck at a mint in London between AD 318 and 324.
“The occupants may have been familiar with their use for making purchases at markets but barter and the fulfilment of social obligations may well have served as methods of exchange alongside coinage too.”
Two Roman coins were found on the site
Peter Fleming, Professor of history at UWE Bristol, said: “The coins are a very rare find. Bristol is widely believed to have originated long after the date to which these finds have been allocated – the Romans seem not to have realised how much scope there was on the site where Bristol later grew up, and there does not seem to have been a major villa site around here. So, the farm to which these finds belonged would have been a smaller occupancy than a villa.”
The finds from the Frenchay site will be on display at Blaise Castle House Museum on Saturday July 28 as part of Bristol’s Brilliant Archaeology Festival. Find out more about the event at www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/blaise-castle-house-museum/whats-on/bristols-brilliant-archaeology
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