Report by Shuchi Giridhar
Kent, Britain:
Archaeologists have found traces of Roman Silver extraction in an old farm. The old farm is called Grange farm. It is located in Kent, England.
During the Late Iron Age, a farming community were the first known to occupy the Grange farm. The farm became a main point during the Roman period mainly for manufacturing salt and ceramics.
An aisled building, which was a wooden structure quite common in Roman Britain, with one end devoted to high-status accommodation, along with many fireplaces in the middle and an area specialized for metalworking at the other end, was incorporated by a new settlement. This took place by the fourth century AD.
The ‘cupellation’ method (the method of separating gold or silver from contamination by melting the metal in a flat, porous dish called a cupel) of silver extraction, derives a product called litharge (a natural mineral form of lead oxide), which was unearthed in a huge amount. The litharge totally weighed 15 kg. This was recorded to be the most of this product found in Roman-Britain.
A Roman mausoleum was also found at the farm. The archaeologists say then it would have been almost two stories tall with a plain red mosaic tessellated pavement. Inside it was a coffin lined with lead, which contained the remains of a high status woman who was estimated to be middle-aged.
The mausoleum was standing in a ruined and shabby state this was until it was found out that the land was noted down as containing a pasture, a probable tidal mill and six unfree peasants. According to the Director at Pre-Construct Archaeology & Monograph Editor, Victoria Ridgeway, finding a coffin lined with lead in a mausoleum that too in Roman-Britain, was unusual and it suggested that the woman found in the coffin was important to her community.
Evidence of Anglo-Saxon activity has also been found in the site. These finds were a Scandinavian-style brooch of solid silver cast in Nydam Style and gilded along with two spearheads. These finds were from the later part of the fifth century AD. After this the archeologists are hoping to discover more such different finds.