KENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY  -- RESEARCH   Studying and sharing Kent's past      Homepage


The Roman Pottery of Kent
by Dr Richard J. Pollard  -  Chapter 4  page 81
Doctoral thesis completed in 1982, published 1988

by source area has not been attempted. The former method is not comparable with the vessel rim equivalents method adopted by the present author.
   Graphs of the ‘numbers of stamps/decorated sherds per ten/five year period’ tend to show a rise from around A.D. 120, when the Central Gaulish factories were expanding, peaking in the mid-Antonine period (c. A.D. 150—170), and falling off thereafter to the end of the second century, beyond which only a trickle of imports primarily from East Gaul, but also including vessels from Raetia (the Westendorf industry; e.g. Simpson 1970, 111, no. 15, from Canterbury), continued to flow until the mid-third century. The quantified data accumulated by the present author (Appendix 5) suggests that samian (taking all sources together) generally comprises between 5 per cent and 10 per cent of Hadrianic-Severan pottery assemblages; further study should reveal whether the figure of 23 per cent from the well at Canterbury Rosemary Lane (Bennett et al., 1982; quantification by the present author, published in Appendix 5 of the present volume) is abnormally high or not. The sites for which quantified Hadrianic-Severan groups are available are mostly from urban or ‘small town’ settlements, but the figures from two late-second to mid-third century groups from Brenley Corner, a roadside industrial/agricultural settlement with a shrine or small temple, accord with those from Rochester and Springhead of similar date; further data are required from both rural and urban sites before any patterning in the distribution of samian can be usefully determined. The intensity of usage of East Gaulish third-century wares on different classes and locations of site is a field of especial interest, as the study of East Gaulish Trier ‘Rhenish’ ware by the present author (Fig. 39) suggests that these black-slip beakers achieved an uneven distribution restricted in the main to urban sites and some villas.
   The most frequently-occurring samian forms of this period (Hart1ey 1969) are bowls, particularly Drag. 18/31, 37,

and the Antonine introductions Drag. 31 and Drag. 38; cups, primarily Drag. 33 (Drag. 27 being made only until the mid-second century); and mortaria. The latter class of vessel was first introduced in the samian ware range in the second half of the second century, and became one of the more common mortarium fabrics on Kent sites in the late Antonine period, ushering in a fashion for ‘fine ware’ mortaria that continued in Britain and elsewhere into the fifth century (see below, and cf. Young 1977a).
   The colour-coated wares of the period from c. A.D. 130—150 are mainly bag-shaped rough-cast beakers, sometimes folded, the production of Central Gaulish colour-coated ovoid beakers having terminated some time during the reign of Hadrian (A.D. 117—138) (Greene 1978a, 17). Everted-rim globular rough-cast beakers were also produced in the lower Rhineland (Anderson 1980, fig. 8, no. 2,), and Coichester (Hull 1963, Form 396). The bag-beakers occur in a variety of fabrics, but are always cast with clay particles rather than sand. The primary supplier to Kent appears to have been the lower Rhineland, the most common fabric from which is a white ware with dark brown, grey or black slip (Anderson 1980, 14—20, Fabric 1). Grey and buff-orange wares from North Gaul (ibid., 28—34) are also known, at least at Canterbury (M. Green, pers. comm.). A number of other sources may be represented, in grey, brown, red and buff fabrics; amongst these may he Colchester, which was producing colour-coated beakers from the mid-second century onwards, if not earlier (Hull 1963, Forms 391, 392, 396; Anderson 1980, 35—8). Colchester fabrics range in colour from buff through orange to brown or grey, and are often impossible to distinguish with a hand-lens from Nene Valley products. However, the latter source does not appear to have produced rough-cast wares and may not have begun production of colour-coated wares on an appreciable scale until the latter half of the second

Page 81

Page 80      Back to Chapter 4    Contents Page         Page 82

For details about the advantages of membership of the Kent Archaeological Society   click here

Back to Publications On-line               Back to Research Page            Back to Homepage                 

Kent Archaeological Society is a registered charity number 223382
© Kent Archaeological Society 2004

This website is constructed by enthusiastic amateurs. Any errors noticed by other researchers will be to gratefully received so that we can amend our pages to give as accurate a record as possible. Please send details too research@kentarchaeology.org.uk