Casgliadau Arlein

Vitrified crucible fragment.

The crucibles found on the British Telecom site were all used to melt copper alloys of one sort or another. It appears that brass was the commonest of the alloys being melted and this is not suprising in a 1st century military context as the most widely used metal for military fittings at this period was brass. A few of the crucible fragments found on the site are thin-walled wheel thrown beakers with an outer layer of deeply vitrified less refractory clay. The majority of the crucibles are hand made, typically being thumb pots, and made of reasonably refractory fabric, some containing vegetable temper as well as or instead of normal mineral temper. Source: Justine Bayley 'Examination and analysis of crucibles from Caerleon' Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report 90/89