Excavators dig up thriller Roman pot on Teesside – and it might include burnt hashish seeds

Archaeologists on Teesside are set to seek out out whether or not plant stays recovered from a Roman pot include hashish seeds.

Throughout the Covid lockdown, Inexperienced Man Archaeology was referred to as in to watch groundwork at an energy-generating facility between Saltholme Nature Reserve, north of Port Clarence, and Cowpen Bewley, in Billingham. Earlier work on the location had discovered proof from the Romano-British interval – enclosures containing settlement and agricultural exercise.

Two human burials had already been discovered – with groups ready for much more or the potential for a cemetery. However then got here the invention of a small Roman pot containing thriller burnt seeds. The beaker was instantly despatched to a laboratory for testing – and groups at the moment are ready to seek out out if the seeds may very well be positively recognized as hemp.

It’s thought that if the seeds discovered within the small jar at Saltholme are confirmed to be hashish, then they could have been heated and the smoke inhaled, probably as a part of a Roman funeral ritual.

The pot was discovered with different Roman pottery in the course of the excavation of the second of two areas, alongside a disintegrated fragment of a scapula, or shoulder blade. The Roman pottery discovered was recognized as being made in Oxfordshire, the Nene Valley, and nearer to Teesside at Huntcliff, the place there was beforehand a Roman sign station.

Inexperienced Man Archaeology at work on the location at Saltholme(Picture: Inexperienced Man Archaeology)

As a part of the subsequent course of, findings from the challenge are usually sorted, cleaned, and despatched to specialists for assessments. However the potential hashish discover meant the beaker was not washed together with the opposite pottery sherds and was as a substitute despatched for evaluation.

It’s believed that Hashish was identified by the Romans, with its use talked about as early because the second and first centuries BC for its medical use and industrial functions, equivalent to making hemp ropes.

Hashish rising in England shouldn’t be thought to have began till round 400 – so it’s unknown whether or not the primary hashish growers in England have been the final Roman Britons or new Anglo-Saxons, Inexperienced Man Archaeology explains.