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province, and new industries were established in Kent
(4.1 below). The samian pottery of Gaul found in Kent may all be of
post-Conquest date, the Tong crater being one possible exception (Whiting
1927a, 41-3). A large proportion of the Gallo-Belgic fine wares - Terra
Nigra, Terra Rubra, and white wares - belong to the Claudio-Neronian
period, although certain earlier forms can be isolated (Rigby 1981; 1982).
The quantities of imported pottery dateable with a reasonable degree of
certainty to the late Iron Age are low when compared to areas such as
Hertfordshire and the Colchester area, even at Canterbury, destined to
become the tribal capital of Roman Kent.
The Italian wine amphorae of Dressel 1 form have been
recognised more or less confidently at five sites (Appendix 3). Arretine
ware is recorded at Canterbury alone, as are ?Central Gaulish flagons
(Pollard forthcoming, d) and jars (including nos. 163-164). Micaceous Terra
Nigra platters, also possibly from Central Gaul, are known from Bexley
(Caiger 1958, no. 4) and Canterbury (Rigby 1982). A detailed study of the
Gallo-Belgic wares might reveal certain items of pre-Conquest date, but
this has yet to be undertaken for Kent, except at Canterbury (see Fig.
18).
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The dearth of imports renders identification of the wares in
use immediately prior to the Conquest exceptionally hazardous. Attempts
can be made at Rochester and Canterbury, and by reference to the range
occurring at the Claudian base of Richborough perhaps for north-east Kent
in general. Grog-tempered and shelly wares were certainly current, along
with some, if not all, variants of flint-based fabrics. A grog-tempered
variant found mainly in west Kent and Surrey, 'Patch Grove' ware, was
developed during the Tiberio-Neronian period, but on balance seems to be
of post-Conquest inception (see nos. 17-21, and 41.2 below). Various
sandy fabrics may span the Conquest, including a ware found in the Medway
valley (nos. 1-9; 4.1.2). The 'glauconite-rich' fabrics appear to
have been abandoned in the early part of the first century A.D. at the
latest, however. On the southern fringes of the county, the
grog-and-siltstone based 'East Sussex Ware' originated in the late
Iron Age, and was little influenced by external developments in potting
fashions until the mid-second century A.D. (Hamilton 1977, fabric 5; Green
1980; Pollard forthcoming, c).
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