EH 165/2000 - Rievaulx

Ceramic Building Materials

by S Garside-Neville

Introduction

A small amount of tile from three contexts was submitted for examination.

Medieval Material

Roofing and flooring material is present. The roofing material takes the form of well made peg tile in a light orange fabric. This type of material was used for roofing throughout the medieval period.

The flooring material from this sample takes two formats. One has a plain glazed upper surface, with a scooped base. The scoop would act as keying, and tends to be an early feature of medieval floor tiles. The other format is a glazed, two-colour tile. The pattern is probably Eames (1980) Design 2724, which depicts foliage. Eames gives a date of 13th century. The fabric of this tile looks very similar in composition to that of the roofing tile.

There is also a fragment of a tile waster.

Conclusion

The the material probably dates to around the 13th century. The sample should retained until such time as it can be thoroughly recorded, using a fabric and form type series, and set in its context within the site.

Reference

Eames Elizabeth, 1980. Medieval lead-glazed earthenware tile in the Department of Medieval and Later Antiquities British Museum British Museum Publications, 2 volumes.

Context Listing

Cxt	Form	Bre	Thi	Comments	Date range	Spot date
8000	Plain		18	Trimmed/smoothed	13-15th	13-15th
8001	Floor	106	34	Worn dark green glaze, brown glaze on base, trimmed edges, scooped base	13th	13th
	Floor?			Waster	13-15th
	Peg		16	Square peghole	13-15th
	Plain		22	Trimmed	13-15th
8002	Floor		36	Glazed, decorated, two colour, fabric similar to roofing tile, Eames design 2724 (cat nos 6139-6141)	13th	13th
	Peg		18	Diamond peghole	13-15th

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