Colchester Archaeological Report 2: The Roman small finds

small fragments. B312 one very small fragment.
4300 SF BUC 266(C), B397 G77. Period 2. A minute fragment of
woven fabric, now a dense shiny black, found on the right
arm of a skeleton. The cloth fragment, folded double,
measures about 8.0 by 3.0mm. Its structure is a very fine
plain weave, clearly visible on the one side, but obscured on
the other by the fraying of the fabric. Under low-power
magnification it seems to have the characteristics of silk.
System 1 (perhaps weft), unspun, 40-5 threads per
10.0mm, comparatively widely spaced, maximum length
8.0mm. System 2 (perhaps warp), unspun, about 100
threads per 10.0mm. System 2 contains finer yarn than 1,
which it covers.
Miss B Lomas, Senior Experimental Officer in the
Department of Textile Technology, UMIST, reports: The
samples are very brittle and opaque to the passage of light,
which has made microscopical examination very difficult.
The fragment of fabric is of a plain weave and the yarns are
composed of fibres of regular appearance which are smooth
and uniform in diameter. The fibres are opaque to light and
very friable. Cross-sectioning has had limited success.
However, the number of fibres observed with approximately
triangular sections similar to silk fibres is too great to be
coincidental. The evidence indicates that this fragment of
plain weave fabric is woven from yarns composed most
probably of silk fibres. The cross-section suggests
cultivated, not wild, silk.
4301 SFBUC387(C)/391(C), B1062 G171. Period 2. Plain-weave
cloth, the outer layer of wrapping around a grave deposit of
an iron knife (Fig 130, 2950) which may have been
sheathed in a leather scabbard. System 1, fairly weak Zspun,
about 11 threads per 10.0mm, maximum length
19.0 mm. System 2, Z-spun, about 12 threads per 10.0mm,
maximum length 20.0 mm. Attached to the centraI portion of
the blade and running obliquely across it are the remains of
a selvedge, about 10.0 mm long. It is a reinforced selvedge
(probably not a heading cord), woven 1-over-1 around one
bundle of three extra warp-threads, not plied, but worked as
one. The extra, outer, warp is Z-spun. At one point on the
blade are traces of what may be a weaving fault (two or three
threads worked together in one system), but it may merely
be the result of damage.
4302 SF BUC 385(C), B1063 G171. Provenance probably as
4301. A small fragment of plain-weave cloth (about 10.0 by
7.0mm), probably the same as 4301.
4303 SF BUC 502, C868 G295. Period 2. Surviving remains and
impressions in plaster of a fairly fine plain-weave textile
(about 20.0mm 2
), found to the right of the lumbar vertebrae
of a skeleton. System 1, weak Z-spun, about 18 threads per
10.0 mm, widely spaced. System 2, weak Z-spun, about 18
threads per 10.0mm. The yarn in 1 is slightly finer than that
in 2.
4304 SF BUC 727, C1396 G404. Period 2. Possibly wrapping from
grave deposits inside the coffin. A very small fragment
(about 3.0mm 2
) of medium-fine plain weave, with a possible
count of 12 threads per 10.0mm in both systems.
4305 SF BUC 1312, C1527 G404. Provenance as 4304 Mediumfine
plain weave (about 10.0mm 2
), probably part of 4304.
Corrosion products from metalwork appear to have
been responsible for the preservation of most of the
fabrics described above. Plaster in Grave 295,
however, may have assisted the survival of 4303. On
visual examination all the textiles (except one) appear
Notes
1 Personal communication to Philip Crummy.
2 The Trust acknowledges its indebtedness to Judy McCausland
who first drew our attention to this object when it was in private
hands, and who arranged for it to be recorded and
photographed by the Trust and at length to be purchased by the
Colchester and Essex Museum. The piece had changed hands
at least once before Mrs McCausland learnt of it.
3 This piece was identified by Donald Bailey, to whom I am
grateful.
148
to be of flax, and have the weak Z-spin characteristic
of linen yarn in the western Roman provinces. The
exceptionally fine plain weave from Grave 77 (4300)
appears under the microscope to be of silk.
There are few significant technical details to mention,
since the fragments are so small. The plain-weave
cloth adhering to the knife blade in Grave 171 (4301)
had a reinforced selvedge in which the weft returned
around a group of three extra warp-threads. (It could
be a heading cord, but this is less likely.) This
technical device, designed to strengthen the edge of
the cloth, can be paralleled on a plain-weave woollen
check cloth from Vindolanda (Chesterholm,
Northumberland) (c AD 110) but there the warp cord
contains six warp-threads, not three (Wild 1977, 7,
29). In the eastern provinces selvedges reinforced by
a single warp cord are common, both for wool and
linen (Yadin 1963, fig 67,200; table 13,199; table 20,
253). On the precise number of the three warp
threads, however, the Colchester selvedge has no
parallel in the western Roman provinces.
The extremely fine plain weave from Grave 77 is of
unusual interest. It has a count of 45 by 100 threads
per 10.0mm, and is probably silk. Finds of silk textiles
are rare in the Roman West and are all of 3rd- or 4thcentury
date (Wild 1970a, 101,109, 117, 118; Nuber
and Radnoti 1969, 37). The closest parallel, on weave
alone, is a recent find from York, North Yorkshire, but
it lacks the fineness of the Colchester piece (Hedges
1976, 14-15, pl 2). Neither the warp not the weft of
the Colchester silk has been spun, and this may be
important. It is generally agreed that silk textiles
woven within the Roman Empire have spun (usually
Z-spun) warp and unspun weft (Wild 1970a, 44, 51).
Indeed, one might argue that the combined Z-spun
and S-spun yarns in the warp of the York textile point
to a workshop in western Europe where woollen
fabrics relying on the varied spin directions of their
yarns for pattern effects were being woven in the Iron
Age, Roman and Migration periods. 5
Unspun warp
and weft, however, is characteristic of silks woven in
China (Pfister 1937, 35-6). One would hesitate to
claim this as a Chinese import on this feature alone,
but the possibility cannot be ruled out.
The evidence from later Roman graves at York (Wild
1970a, 95) and Poundbury, Dorchester (unpublished
report by J P Wild), suggest that the textiles from Butt
Road were used to wrap corpses and grave-goods and
do not represent clothing remains, except in
secondary use. This hypothesis needs to be tested
against the results of future work. •
4 I am indebted to Stephen Greep for the identification of this
object.
5 Wild 1977, 27; H-J Hundt, Textil- und Lederreste aus einem
alamannischen Grab von Munningen, Kr. Donau-Ries', in
Saalburg Jahrbuch 33 (1976), 76 ff. The silks from Morken in
the Rhineland may also be of western origin, for they have close
affinities structurally with the products of western European
wool-weavers (H Hinz, Die Ausgrabungen in Morken, Kr.
Bergheim, 1969, 219 ff).