Colchester Archaeological Report 2: The Roman small finds

percentage into five groups: a) coins; b) post-Roman
and prehistoric objects; c) objects published in this
volume; d) discarded fragments (both Roman and
post-Roman), and objects not considered to be worth
cataloguing here for one reason or another (eg state
of preservation or dubious context); e) pieces
temporarily stored with the small finds subsequently
relocated, and missing (stolen) objects. 12
The table
illustrates clearly that the objects published here
form only a small proportion of the large number of
small finds which had to be examined. Many factors
influenced the figures in columns c) and d), of which
perhaps the most important was the state of
preservation of the objects.
Soil Conditions
The natural soil within the town wall of Colchester
and to the immediate south and west of the town is
sand. To the north and east, on the flood-plain of the
river Colne, the natural soil is alluvial silt. (A detailed
description of the geology of the Colchester district is
given in Hawkes and Hull 1947, 1 -4.) In this volume
all the sites concerned have a sandy natural soil apart
from the St Helena's School and Middleborough
sites, which lie on the alluvial silt. Because sandy
soils are acid the state of preservation of bone and
particularly of iron objects is poor(Dowman 1970,21 -
3). This is most noticeable in the cemeteries south of
the town walls, where many of the skeletons were
entirely decayed and the coffin nails mineralized. On
the occupational levels of other sites the preservation
of bone was good, but that of iron was only slightly
better, despite the fact that the present-day pH value
of most levels was on the alkaline side of neutral. 13
Conservation: policy and problems
No allowance specifically intended for conservation
has ever been made in the Trust's budget, but a
substantial part of the collection has benefited from
professional treatment. When full-time excavation
began in the Spring of 1971, the Colchester and Essex
Museum, which will be the ultimate repository of the
finds, arranged that its conservator should spend
approximately half of his time on the Trust's small
objects (Crummy 1975, 36). The Museum further
assisted with conservation by contracting out some
work on the excavated finds to the Area Museums
Service. 14
Despite the Museum's valuable
contribution, the number of incoming small finds has
far exceeded the number of objects conserved. This is
in part due to the need for urgent treatment of delicate
items, such as mosaic fragments and painted wall
plaster, but to some extent changes in conservation
techniques are responsible; for example, the move
away from the use of chemical reagents in the
cleaning of copper-alloy objects. While the necessity
for abandoning this process in the interests of the
long-term survival of the finds is evident (Merk 1978),
its passing is naturally viewed with regret by anyone
wishing for the quick cleaning of a large number of
objects in order to benefit from the information
obtainable from them (Dowman 1970, 143).
Between 1972 and 1975 the finds assistants treated
4
the copper-alloy objects with Benzotriazole (ibid,
142). This practice was discontinued when it was
learnt that the chemical was perhaps a toxic hazard.
When the post-excavation examination of the small
finds began in 1976, all incoming objects and those
as yet untreated were graded into one of three
categories according to the urgency of their need of
conservation. Factors governing the classification of
each object included the material or materials from
which it was made, its state of preservation either on
excavation or on re-examination during postexcavation
work, and its archaeological importance.
All coins and brooches therefore fell into the first
(most urgent) category, while objects of bone, usually
being stable, belonged to the last group, which
consisted of those finds requiring no treatment.
This practice has been of value in tackling the backlog
of untreated finds, but there is still a large number of
items in the first category awaiting professional
treatment. From the larger sites a total of 2,850
objects, both Roman and post-Roman and excluding
coins (all of which have been treated), were decided to
be in need of conservation; 40% of these are yet to be
treated. This 40% includes finds in the first (urgent)
category but does not take into account objects now
discarded which may have been useful had they
received early conservation. The figure of 2,850
represents 24% of the total number of small finds
•from the major sites after discounting temporary
recordings. This would seem to indicate that the
generally-held estimate (Musty 1980, 5) that 15% of
site finds are usually in need of conservation is too
low, particularly when it is considered that coins
alone make up over 15% of the small finds from the
sites shown in the table above.
The method of the initial recording and the
storage of small finds
Each site has a day book in which the finds assistant
enters, against a consecutive run of numbers, the
objects either sent in from the site as small finds or
extracted from the excavated material during sorting
and cleaning. Each recorded object has then both a
site find number, which may or may not be unique to
that piece, and a small find number jindicated here by
SF), which is normally unique to that piece.
Occasionally, several objects from the same context
may be entered against the same small find number if
they appear to be closely related, eg beads probably
from the same string. There is only one set of small
find numbers per site including those sites which are
divided into a series of lettered areas. The small finds
are stored individually in manilla envelopes,
polythene bags, or small boxes of cardboard or
polystyrene. They are initially kept in their
consecutive runs of numbers, but as the postexcavation
work progresses the finds are split into the
categories described below and stored in cardboard
boxes according to those categories.
The classification system
The classification system used here was devised not
only for the publication of a large number of small