Bristol Dig Berkeley

A partial tile fragment was uncovered in the south-west area of Trench 8 on Monday 3rd June by two of our First Year students: Katrina and Omar.   Katrina and Omar excavating slot against southern trench section to investigate pre-Tudor demolition deposits In its unwashed pink-clay stained state, this object sparked debate between the dig supervisors who could not agree whether it was made from stone or ceramic. After a wash, it was clearly seen to be made from clay and had evidence of finger marks sweeping across as decoration or perhaps from fitting the material into a mould.   Clay tile fragment in situ within context 8710 The exact nature of this object was a bit of a mystery, and it was suggested to be some kind of wall decoration or 'cladding'. This was solved after we sent some cleaned-up photos to our pottery expert Paul Blinkhorn who said that from the images, it looked like a Minety ware roof tile. Clay Tile after cleaning The village o...