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
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‘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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