|
mica-dusted, marbled, stamped, lead-glazed and fine
white wares. Continental importation was dominated for most of the period
by South Gaulish samian ware, but the quality of this region’s output
declined during the late first century, resulting in a virtual cessation
of supply to most of the Empire (Johns 1971, 23). Central Gaulish
potteries at Les Martres-de-Veyre inherited the trade in samian to
Britain, but sites throughout the south-east show a marked fall-off in
stamped samian in the last decade of the first century, a trend which the
Central Gaulish potteries were able at first to reverse with only limited
effectiveness (cf. Bird and Marsh 1978, 527—30; Bird 1982b and
forthcoming). The coincidence of this shortfall in the supply of samian
with the production of a variety of fine wares in Britain has been
remarked upon by Marsh (1978, 207—8), and will be further discussed
below.
The range of pottery types imported to Britain in the
mid-Flavian to Trajanic period, samian apart, appears to have been
restricted in the main to beakers. Exports of Gallo-Belgic pottery to
Britain ceased to flow in appreciable quantities in the early Flavian
period; although Terra Nigra bowls of Flavian
date do occur (Greene 1979a, 111—14), these are not necessarily of
Gaulish origin. The Rhineland exported small quantities of mica-dusted
wares to Britain in the late Neronian and Flavian period, these being
predominantly short everted-rim globular beakers sometimes with bossed
decoration (Marsh 1978, 120—2, 151—3 and Types 20.1 and 22.1—2).
Colour-coated ‘bag-shaped’ beakers with delicately-moulded ‘cornice’
rims and rough-cast clay embellishment were also imported from the lower
Rhineland (Greene 1978c), their fine white fabric contrasting with broadly
similar forms in grey/red ware from North Gaul (Anderson 1980, lower
Rhineland Fabric 1, North Gaul Fabric 1). Ovoid beakers, also in
colour-coated white ware, were imported from Central Gaul; these vessels
have a short-everted rim and usually either rough-cast or ‘en
barbotine’ decoration, the latter being applied prior
to
|
|
slipping and often in ‘hairpin’ motifs (Greene 1978a, fig. 2.3, no. 2).
None of these non-samian imports appears to have found a wide market in Kent
at this time, being confined in the main to Canterbury and Richborough (see
Appendix 3). Lower Rhineland colour-coated beakers did expand their
distribution in the Hadrianic-mid-Antonine period, however, to include
settlements of all types in every locality (4.III.1).
The evidence for production of fine reduced wares on the
Upchurch Marshes comprises wasters from various sites (Noel Hume 1954) and a
beaker from a kiln at Bedlam’s Bottom, Iwade (Ocock 1966). Forms
characteristic of this industry first appear at Canterbury and Richborough
in deposits with termini post quos in the late
A.D. 70s—80s (e.g. at Richborough: Pits 34 and 40— Bushe-Fox 1932, and
Pit 194 — Bushe-Fox 1949; at Canterbury
the floor of the Flavian building R1 — Pollard
forthcoming, d). Sherds are also present at Lullingstone in the ‘Granary
Ditch’, a context thought by the excavator to pre-date the construction of
the villa c. A.D. 80—90 (Meates 1979). The
potteries supplying these sites may thus pre-date the inception of fine
reduced ‘London Ware’ production in London (Marsh and Tyers 1976), which
is dated to c. A.D. 90 on the basis of
occupation site evidence from Southwark and London (Marsh 1978, 199). Fine
grey wares appear to have rapidly achieved a strong custom throughout Kent.
The Domitianic (?)
floor level at Canterbury alluded to above included over 14 per cent
of these wares (vessel rim equivalents, excluding samian), although a
Vespasianic-Trajanic context in the city contained only some 5
per cent (including samian), a figure echoed in a deposit of similar
date at Springhead (see Appendix 5).
The early forms in fine grey ware include biconical,
butt-, shouldered, globular and ‘poppyhead’ beakers (nos. 119, 122, 126—7
and 129 here), biconical and S-shape jars or bowls
|