This is a fragment of a Roman mortarium from our Local History collection. It was excavated from the site of the Churchill Hospital in Headington.
It is a piece of Oxfordshire "whiteware"; this was a type of pottery that was extensively distributed in the south during the third century. Large numbers of pottery kilns have been excavated in south and east Oxford. The numbers have suggested to some archaeologists an "industrial zone". The kilns cluster around the Roman road linking the towns of Dorchester-on-Thames and Alchester, near Bicester. The road by-passed central Oxford, an area of rural settlement in Roman times, to the east.
The potters produced high-quality, durable domestic ware for kitchen and table. They used the pure white clay of Shotover Hill, just east of the modern ring-road and south of the road to London.
A mortarium is a large vessel which was lined with grit or iron stone that was used to grind spices and herbs for food preparation. These mortaria were a well-known product of the kilns; the potters used quartz sand from sources such as Boars Hill to the west, probably crossing the River Thames at the site of the modern Donnington Bridge.