The Whetstones from Roman Silchester at Reading Museum: The Victorian-Edwardian Excavations

A hitherto undescribed assemblage of 51 whetstones recovered by Victorian-Edwardian excavators is reported below and assigned to geological sources. Unused/discarded roof tiles of Brownstones (Devonian, Lower Old Red Sandstone) and Pennant sandstone (high Upper Carboniferous) from the West Country were exploited for the majority of the whetstones. Some use was also made of roof tiles of Stonesfield Slate (Jurassic) from southern Oxfordshire. The only deliberately manufactured whetstones came from the Weald Clay Formation (Lower Cretaceous) of the northwest Weald, and from another Jurassic source in the west/south Midlands. A few whetstones, of sarsen and Bunter Pebble Beds quartzite, appear to have been 'found' objects. The Museum group is similar to the multi-period assemblage from Insula IX at Silchester, but is likely to emphasize circumstances in the town (especially the forum-basilica) during the later Roman period. A Catalogue of the whetstones is presented.