Hagg Farm Settlement Finds

Excavations at the Romano-British settlement site at Hagg Farm, Fremington, which took place in most years during the period 2011 to 2021, produced a great wealth of small finds dating mainly from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD. This page summarises the nature of those finds, full reports on which can be found in the page on this website dedicated to the whole Hagg Farm project (link at the foot of this page).

Two sides of an ancient silver Roman coin, shown side-by-side, with the obverse (the head) on the left. It has a large profile of an emperor's head and right shoulder, facing to the right. He has a laurel wreath in his hair. There are indistinct letters around the rim of the coin. The reverse side shows a tall figure at the centre, which is actually a stand upon which hang items of armour. At its foot are two human figures seated on the ground. There is indistinct lettering around the rim.
This fine-quality silver denarius, struck in Rome, was the first of the Roman coins to be found in the dig at the Hagg Farm settlement. On the obverse is a profile of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, who was Emperor of Rome 198-217 AD and was better known by his nickname Caracalla. The legend reads ANTONINVS PIVS AVG ‘Antoninus Pious Exalted.’ The reverse shows a tall trophy-monument from which are hung the arms of a defeated foe. Two captive soldiers are at its foot. The Legend reads PART MAX PONT TRP III ‘Parthicus Maximus Pontifex Tribunicia Potestate III,’ meaning ‘The greatest conqueror of the Parthians, [high] priest, holder of tribunician power for the third year, which indicates the year of the coin’s minting in 201 AD.

Personal Apparel and Adornments

A largely intact fragment of an ancient Roman crossbow brooch, which appears as a green/gold metal arch shape, with perpendicular protrusions from the foot of the arch on each side. The protrusion on the left side also appears to have a crosspiece pointing towards the camera.
A silvered and partly gilded, copper-alloy brooch, thought to be a proto-type Roman crossbow brooch, which was found at the Hagg Farm site. Compare with the British Museum near-complete example (right). The Hagg Farm object’s cross head and arch are intact. It is missing the main part of its stock and its pin, although the remains of a pin-spring were found.
A gold Roman crossbow brooch in the shape of a cross but with the upright piece connected to the crosspiece by a semi-circular arch. The top of the upright and ends of the crosspiece have large, pointed, bud-like finials. The upright and bow are decorated with etching forming a line of small triangle. The upright also has gold adornments shaped like small petals, four pairs on each side at regular spacing.
A richly ornamented, late-Roman, gold crossbow brooch, found in Scotland in 1847, complete except for its pin, and now in the British Museum collection, ref. 1962,1205.1. Gold brooches would have been restricted to the highest-status military or civilian individuals. Image © The Trustees of the British Museum. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

The most significant find at the Hagg Farm site among those that could be categorised as personal apparel and adornments, is a copper-alloy brooch, found in 2017 and thought to be a proto-type crossbow brooch (image above left). This devise was both decorative and functional, used for fastening a cloak at the shoulder. It became a standard item of apparel for Roman soldiers and well-dressed civilians. Images showing how crossbow brooches were worn can be seen in two 4th-century artworks below.

Detail from an ancient Roman mosaic showing the head and shoulders of a man wearing a cloak fastened at one shoulder with a crossbow brooch.
A figure, presumed to be the property owner, in the Great Hunt Mosaic from the Roman Villa del Casala at the Piazza Armerina, Sicily, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Ivory carving in relief of an ancient-Roman-era man wearing a cloak fastened at one shoulder by a crossbow brooch.
A section from an ivory diptych, created c. 395 AD at Monza Cathedral, northern Italy. It is thought to represent one of two known Roman generals of great distinction.

A different style of functional brooch, a simple iron penannular brooch, or ring-brooch, also missing its pin, was found at the Hagg Farm site in 2018. In 2019, five hobnails were found, indicating the presence of Roman-style footwear.  Also in 2019, diggers turned up a fragment of a blue glass bangle decorated with white trailed ‘pothook’ motifs and thought to date from 60-200 AD. They also found several beads of coloured glass, jet, and shale or cannel coal, most or all believed to be Roman.

Toiletry instruments
A broken, finely polished, rectangular, palm-held, stone palette was found in 2017. It is believed to have been used for preparing cosmetics or medicines. In the following year, diggers found a copper-alloy, hand-held rod or pick, broken at one end and with a spatulate shape at the other. According to the analysis, it might have been a spoon probe, used to extract ointments or powders from a storage pot, or was possibly a blank for manufacturing a needle or hairpin.

Pottery
During the most-intense years of excavations, from 2013 to 2021, almost 1,000 pottery sherds from the Romano-British period were found and professionally analysed. There was an abundance of late-Roman pottery fabrics characteristic of the area. The majority were dated to the 4th century or late 3rd century, with only a few from the earlier 3rd century or 2nd century.

Domestic/Industrial Tools
Several objects found in excavations between 2017 and 2019 and that might be categorised as domestic or industrial tools, included an incomplete iron knife in a style known to be common in the Roman period. A lead biconical suspension weight of 618g found in 2017 is consistent with those used in a weigh-balance sometimes called a Roman balance, otherwise known as a steelyard balance.

Other objects found were not datable but could be from the Roman period. Two perforated roundels, one of lead and one of stone, might have been small weights, or possibly counters. Two stone discs might also have been counters, or possibly gaming pieces. Three larger stone discs found in the same year could not be interpreted. Nine palm-sized stones were identified as tools, possibly used as burnishers, smoothers, or hones, perhaps used for preparing foodstuffs, textiles, or leather, or for polishing or burnishing metals.

Also found were an incomplete iron needle, a piece of folded iron sheet, possibly from the rim of an iron vessel, a part of a knife, two small iron rings, and an iron object that is possibly a piece of figure-of-eight chain link.

Building/Industrial materials
Over three years of excavations, 29 nails of Roman characteristics were found, together with 44 pieces of daub from wattle and daub walls. Wattle impressions and builders’ finger marks were seen on some of the pieces. A single fragment of slag was also recovered, possibly indicating the presence on the site of metalworking.

Full reports on all the objects summarised above can be found in the dedicated page on this website: Hagg Farm Fremington.