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The Roman Pottery of Kent
by Dr Richard J. Pollard  -  Chapter 4  page 46
Doctoral thesis completed in 1982, published 1988

amphorae on rural sites, which are widespread, cannot be dated with confidence either by typology or stratigraphic associations to the pre-Flavian period, except for first-century B.C. Dressel lB finds at Highstead (Arthur forthcoming) and Worth. Canterbury and Richborough both exhibit a wide variety of pre-Flavian amphorae (Arthur 1986), further emphasising the differentiation between these sites and the countryside around them in this period.

4. The Coarse Wares of Central Northern Kent

There is considerable differentiation between sites around Faversham Creek on the one hand and those to the west up to the Medway at Rochester. Mid-first century groups at Faversham (Philp 1968, nos. 174—233) and pre-Flavian/Flavian ditch fills at Brenley Corner (Jenkins 1973; 1974; interim reports) are similar in many respects to those of rural sites in north-east Kent. Grog-tempered wares of Canterbury forms predominate (88 per cent of coarse wares at Brenley Corner, excluding a complete amphora rim), alongside ‘calcite-gritted’ S-shape bowls and bead-rim jars at Faversham, and sand-tempered necked jars at both sites. It is possible that the Faversham examples (Philp 1968, nos. 193, 194) are of ‘Stuppington Lane’ ware, but this hypothesis is based on the published descriptions alone.
   There is kiln and waster evidence for the production of flint-tempered wares in bead-rim and S-jar forms on the Upchurch Marshes in the pre-Flavian period (Noel Hume 1954; Jackson 1962, 1972/3). This ware clearly achieved only a very localised distribution, being found no further east than Radfield (Baxter and Mills 1978; unpublished material), or further west than Rochester, both less than 15 km. away. These two sites also received finely flint-gritted ‘Gallo-Belgic’ platters (cf. Camulodunum 27), probably manufactured in the same area in the mid first century A.D. Flint-sand tempered ware comprised 11 per cent of a 

mid-first to early second-century A.D. group at Rochester (unpublished: see Appendix 5); alongside 16 per cent shelly ware and 24 per cent sand-tempered wheel-thrown wares (4.1.2). Grogged ware would appear to have been predominant at Radfield, however, with shelly wares extremely rare both here and at Brenley Corner (two sherds at the former — one a shell-sand bead-rim jar — and one at the latter site). The collection from Hartlip villa, which comprises mostly fine pottery, also includes a shell-sand tempered bead-rim jar, and a Canterbury-type grog-tempered platter. Hand-made sandy wares, not necessarily of mid-first century A.D. date, at Radfield include’ bead-rim jars with furrowed decoration, and a bead-rim cordoned S-jar.
   Furrowed wares are an important feature of the pottery of the Medway-Swale region, as they form a typological link with the east, rather than the west, of Kent. ‘West Kent’ mid-first century coarse wares are present only in very small numbers east of Rochester, the ‘Cooling’ sand-with-shell fabric being found only at Ospringe, (one sherd, unstratified), and ‘Patch Grove’ ware also only at Ospringe, but in a late second/third-century burial group (see Figs. 20 and 31). ‘Reed Avenue/St. Stephen’s Road’ Canterbury wares are entirely absent from the region. Jaccard’s correlation coefficients, taking in all wares possibly attributable to the pre-Flavian period, imply that Rochester has a greater similarity to Radfield (53 per cent) than to Brenley Corner (33 per cent), but Canterbury also exhibits these characteristics (60 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively). By the same measurement Canterbury and Rochester show a 53 per cent similarity, but Radfield and Brenley Corner a lower rating (33 per cent). These figures are difficult to interpret in terms of trade inclination; it may be that Radfield was in a position to absorb trade and influences from both west and east; its pottery exhibits a wider range of both

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