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The Roman Pottery of Kent
by Dr Richard J. Pollard  -  Chapter 4  page 82
Doctoral thesis completed in 1982, published 1988

century (Howe et al. 1980, 7). Although widespread in occurrence (Appendix 3), rough-cast wares appear to have been a rare commodity; of the sixteen assemblages examined at first hand or through publications that include material of c. A.D. 120—180 date (the latter being the terminus ante quem for rough-casting proposed by Anderson 1980) rough-cast wares feature in only seven, in which they comprise up to 4.4 per cent of the total assemblage (excluding samian: Appendix 5).
   The second half of the second century witnessed the eclipse of rough-casting by decoration ‘en barbotine’ and of rouletting. These techniques were both utilised by Nene Valley, Rhineland, Colchester and Central Gaulish (black slip ‘Rhenish’) colour-coated ware industries. Trier ‘Rhenish’ ware was decorated mainly with paint and rouletting, however. The zoomorphic ‘hunt cup’ and anthropomorphic motifs rendered ‘en barbotine’ on bag-shaped beakers are particularly well-known; in the Nene Valley ware, at least, they are virtually confined to the period c. A.D. 150—225 (Howe et al. 1980, 8). Bag-beakers were still apparently the most common forms produced in the Antonine-Severan period (Hull 1963, Forms 391—2; Greene 1978a, fig. 2.3, nos. 4, 9; Howe et al. 1980, nos. 26—34, 37, 44—7; Anderson 1980, 6—7, Form 2), but necked or everted-rim vessels with globular, elliptical and ovoid bodies, sometimed folded, are also known (Hull 1963, Forms 396, 406; Greene 1978a, fig. 2.3, nos. 5—6; Howe et al. 1980, nos. 35—6, 40—1; Anderson 1980, 7, Forms 3 and 4). Globular and ovoid jars or large incised beakers with ‘en barbotine’, app!iqué and moulded decoration occur in second-century samian ware (Déchelette.68, 72-4: Hartley 1969; Johns 1971), but are rare in comparison with bowls, cups and mortaria in both the Central and East Gaulish industries’ output (e.g. Bird forthcoming). Until recently it was believed that the majority of white fabric colour-coated barbotine bag-beakers found in southern Britain were products of the Nene Valley industry (Greene 1978c); however, 

petrological analysis of fabrics from Silchester, Canterbury and elsewhere (Anderson et al. 1982) has revealed the probability that the lower Rhineland industry took a dominant role in the trade in this type of pottery. Nene Valley/Lower Rhineland, Colchester, and Central Gaulish ‘Rhenish’ colour-coated wares all reached a diverse, widespread range of sites in Kent, all three wares often being represented even on rural sites although rarely on settlements below villa status (Fig. 39). The three wares together account for less than 4 per cent of quantified assemblages of second and mid-second to mid-third century dates (Appendix 5), suggesting that the introduction of new pottery styles, and the emergence of the Nene Valley and Central Gaulish ‘Rhenish’ wares did not occasion an expansion of the market for colour-coated wares. The introduction of barbotine-decorated bag-beakers in southern Britain is dated to the middle of the second century; c. A.D. 140 at Verulamium (Wilson 1972), and c. A.D. 150 at London Angel Court Walbrook (Orton 1977b). This date would also suit Central Gaulish ‘Rhenish’ ware (Greene 1978a, 19), but Trier ‘Rhenish’ ware may not have been introduced until the final years of that century lasting into the mid-third century (ibid.).
  
Colour-coated wares of the Hadrianic-Severan period in southern Britain are almost wholly confined to beakers. However, ‘Castor boxes’ — angular narrow-based vessels with a ceramic lid (Howe et al. 1980, no. 89) — may have been produced from the end of the second century, and hemispherical and carinated cups or bowls occur in Central Gaulish ‘Rhenish’ ware (Greene 1978a, fig. 2.3, nos. 7—8). Platters in ‘Pompeian Red’ ware from the Continent, possibly west Flanders (Peacock 1977c, Fabric 7, form as ibid., fig. 3, no. 15) have been found in levels dated to within the late second to mid-third century at Lullingstone villa (Meates 1953, no. 128) and Dover (unpublished): the Continental evidence suggests production between the Flavian period

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