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The Roman Pottery of Kent
by Dr Richard J. Pollard  -  Chapter 4  page 65
Doctoral thesis completed in 1982, published 1988

The Trajanic-Hadrianic (Phase III) potters concentrated on necked jars with decorated shoulders (no. 95 here), which comprised 45 per cent of the pottery (rim count) from Phase III; other forms included ‘poppyhead’ beakers (no. 144 and cf. nos. 129 and 146) and everted-rim neckless jars (18 per cent), flanged bowls (18 per cent — cf. no. 96 here), pie-dishes (c. 10 per cent — cf. no. 110 here), and bead-rim jars (8 per cent). These were all made in a fine sandy fabric, with a silver-grey or white slip. Highgate Wood itself appears to have been a small-scale pottery, thought to represent an indeterminable number of similar enterprises in the London area (ibid.). Wares of ‘Highgate Wood type’ are common in Trajanic-Hadrianic levels at Southwark (Tyers and Marsh 1978, 559, 575) the necked jars being the most frequently encountered jar form of the period. Necked jars and ‘poppyhead’ beakers of ‘Highgate Wood types’ are widespread in Kent, but occur only rarely in sites east of the Darent valley (Fig. 32). They, in combination with flanged bowls, comprise some 8 per cent (vessel rim equivalents) of the early second to mid-fourth century pottery from Joyden’s Wood, although much of this 8 per cent is possibly Hadrianic-Antonine in date (see below). The mainly Trajanic pit fill at Greenhithe contained none of this ware, but a Hadrianic-early Antonine rubbish level (Appendix 5) included necked jar and ‘poppyhead’ beaker forms to the sum of less than 1 per cent of the assemblage. General second-century levels at Springhead and Rochester were devoid of ‘Highgate Wood type’ wares, although they have been recovered from mixed deposits (Appendix 3). Presumably, the competition from the Upchurch Marshes fine wares and sandy ware producers of ‘Shorne type’ served to restrict the distribution of ‘Highgate Wood type’ to western districts.
   A number of other coarse wares of the mid-Flavian-Trajanic period exhibit similar ranges of distribution to

‘Highgate Wood type’ wares. Grey sandy wares of forms essentially identical  to those in the London Copthall Close waster group (Marsh and Tyers 1976), including necked jars sometimes with a carinated shoulder and reed-rim (carinated?) bowls, are found in the Cray valley and to the west, but not in the Darent valley (Fig. 24 for grey ware reed-rim bowls). It is interesting to note that reed-rim bowls of mid-Flavian to Antonine date at Southwark are entirely in the buff and cream-slipped red sandy fabrics typical of the Brockley Hill-Verulamium region (Tyers and Marsh 1978, 573), although grey ware jars of Copthall Close forms do occur (ibid., Type IIC). The buff ware bowls were probably more common in Kent than those in grey wares: at Joyden’s Wood three vessels of the former and one of the latter were recovered (unpublished).
   The Brockley Hill-Verulamium potteries supplied a wide variety of flagon, mortarium, jar, bowl and amphora forms to the London area in the later first and first half of the second centuries (cf. Tyers and Marsh 1978, and Pollard 1983a, 365—83). The range of forms is in many ways similar to those of the contemporary Canterbury industry (below; ibid., 35 1—64; Richardson 1948; Tyers and Marsh 1978; cf. nos. 63, 65—8, 70—1, 73—7 here). The widest range of form types occurs on sites west of the Cray valley (Fig. 10). East of the Cray, excluding Joyden’s Wood, only single examples of a reed-rim bowl and a handled globular ‘honey-jar’ (Tyers and Marsh 1978, Type IIK) have been found (Appendix 3). Brockley Hill-Verulamium types comprise 3 per cent of the Joyden’s Wood assemblage, but less than 1 per cent of the Trajanic pit-fill at Greenhithe; rim sherds are absent from general second-century levels at Springhead and Rochester. Flagons and mortaria tend to be the only forms found on sites east of the Cray valley (Pollard 1983a, 455—9).
The wares described above were produced in either west

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