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Hertfordshire area. However, the mid-Flavian to Trajanic period also
witnessed importation of coarse wares from the Alice Holt forest on the
Surrey/Hampshire border. Alice Holt wares achieved a limited circulation in
Southwark in the pre-Flavian period (see above), possibly extending this
market into north-west Kent. Bead-rim jars (no. 98 here) and bead- or
short-everted 'figure-7' rim necked jars (nos. 93 and 97) are the
forms most frequently encountered, the former being of pre-Flavian to early
second-century date at Southwark, the latter of Flavian to early Antonine
date (Tyers and Marsh 1978, Types IIA 12-14, IIC, IID). Lyne and Jefferies
(1979, 52, and Appendix 3) have suggested that Alice Holt ware at
London 'simply vanished' at the end of the Flavian period after a
considerable popularity there in the A.D. 70s and 80s. The differentiation
between London and Southwark pottery assemblages of the Trajanic period,
highlighted by the absence of grey ware reed-rim bowls at the latter site
and Alice Holt wares at the former, is an intriguing phenomenon that will be
well worth studying when more quantified material has been published from
both settlements. It is clear that north-west Kent and London represented
the eastern fringe of early Alice Holt ware distribution, find-spots in Kent
being confined to Charlton and possibly West Wickham and Hayes (Fig. 37, and
Appendix 3).
The utilisation of mortaria in food preparation appears to have
been adopted at all levels of society (as represented by settlement
hierarchy) by the end of Trajan's reign. Brockley Hill wares achieved a
virtual monopoly of the west Kent market during the Flavian-Trajanic period
to the exclusion of wares from the known Canterbury kilns (see below).
Vessels of Hartley's Group 2 (see above and no. 62), and in fine white
wares, are also present, but in small quantities. The forms most frequently
encountered in Brockley Hill (and, in the Trajanic period, Verulamium) wares
are
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hook-flanged (cf. nos. 71, 117 here): these have been found on at least
thirteen sites in all parts of west Kent, and in central and eastern regions
also (see below).
Amphorae probably also achieved a wide circulation by the end
of this period. Rural sites of the Flavian to early Antonine period
generally include fragments of amphorae (cf. Philp 1973), including examples
of the globular Dressel 20 that carried olive oil from the area of south
Spain between Seville and Cordoba (Peacock 1971, 170). This form occurs in a
well-stratified late first-early second-century context at Springhead
(unpublished) and was, according to Callender (1965, 19), the commonest of
Roman amphorae forms. Fine buff, and Brockley Hill, amphorae also occur on
sites of this period, the latter only at Charlton (Elliston Erwood 1916,
fig. 19, no. 6). South Spanish elongate amphorae (Dressel 7-11) were
possibly imported to west Kent in this period, apparently ceasing to be
produced during the early second century (Peacock 1971, 171).
3. The Coarse Wares of East Kent
The Flavian period witnessed the expansion of the Canterbury pottery
industry from an apparently small-scale concern, supplying almost solely
Canterbury itself and the military base at Richborough, to one that
dominated the market for coarse pottery throughout east Kent. At the same
time the production of grog-tempered ware and of traditional 'Aylesford-Swarling'
forms, including those produced in grog-sand and sand-tempered wares in the
pre-Flavian period, declined almost to the point of complete termination.
Exotic coarse wares are almost entirely confined to Canterbury and
Richborough, excepting mortaria from Brockley Hill.
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