|
remainder. Other forms present in grey sandy ware include lids and
everted-rim storage jars of identical style to those in shelly ware. These
storage jars are, however, much less common than their shelly counterparts,
having been found on only four sites in the Thames estuary to the knowledge
of the present author to a total of five vessels (Appendix 3, and Fig. 31).
The range of vessels manufactured in BB2, burnished and plain
reduced sandy wares in west Kent underwent considerable revision in the late
second century. Evidence from both the northern military zone and from
Southwark places the introduction of the quarter-round ‘cavetto’ everted
rim form on BB2 jars (Gillam 1970, Types 143—4; Tyers and Marsh 1978,
types IVH 5—7; nos. 181 and 183 here) in this period. A synchronous
decline in the manufacture of decorated pie- and dog-dishes may be
envisaged, excepting perhaps pie-dishes with oblique linear decoration
(Gillam 1970, Type 310); certainly the evidence from occupation deposits of
the first half of the third century favours the proposition that the former
decorated forms were not produced after the first decade of that century
(Gillam 1970). The bead-rim BB2 jar was also discarded around this time. The
ubiquity of the plain pie-dish in late second to mid-third century contexts
renders the presence or absence of the form from broadly second-century
contexts a valuable indicator of date: assemblages from which the form is
absent are almost certain to be pre-c. A.D. 180 in accumulation (cf. Gillam
1973, 60). It is primarily this phenomenon that enables the introduction of
fine burnished ware tall-necked bulbous beakers (cf. no. 152 here),
pear-shaped cavetto-rim folded jars (no. 192), flasks (no. 195), narrow-neck
slim jars (e.g. no. 196) and necked jar-bowls with a wavy line on the lower
neck (no. 194) to be placed with confidence in the late second or early
third century rather than any earlier. The plain coarse ware everted-rim
lid-seated jar (no. 201) was probably also a product of this period; the
pear-shaped necked triangular-
|
|
roll-rim jar (nos. 197—9) may have featured in the ‘pre-plain pie-dish’
range of forms, but it was undoubtedly turned out in much larger numbers
relative to other forms from the late second/early third century onwards
(cf. Colchester: Hull 1963, Form 268; and Alice Holt: Lyne and Jefferies
1979, Class 3C). Heavy bead-rim storage jars (no. 202) were produced from
the late second century onwards at Mucking (Jones and Rodwell 1973, Type S)
but possibly not in Kent. An element of standardisation is apparent in the
new fine-burnished range, for wavy lines and burnished zones were employed
by the potters of the Cliffe peninsula on this ware almost to the complete
exclusion of other motifs (at Higham, Pollard 1983b; and amongst the kiln
waste from Cooling — unpublished). This style was also popular at Mucking,
on necked jar-bowls (Jones and Rodwell 1973, Type K), narrow-neck slim jars (ibid.,
Type N), flasks (ibid., Type 0) bag beakers (ibid., Type
R, no. 107) and even heavy roll-rim recurved-shoulder jars (ibid., Type
S, no. 110, cf. no. 202 here) during the late second and third/early fourth
centuries. Plain bag- and necked bulbous-beakers in fine grey ware may also
have been produced at Cooling (unpublished), but are absent from Higham.
Local variation in the production of these wares is detectable from the
study of kiln site and occupation site material. Thus the combed-shoulder
motif found at Joyden’s Wood (no. 193 here) has not been recorded by the
present author on any other site in Kent or Essex. This form may,
admittedly, be pre-Severan in date, but is almost certainly not earlier than
mid-Antonine according to its on-site associations. The wavy line does not
seem to have been present on this site, although the heavy abrasion of the
material may have resulted in the loss of decoration. The use of
diamond-rouletting (Jones and Rodwell 1973, e.g. no. 82) and roller-stamping
(ibid., nos. 83 and 99) appears to have been confined to the Mucking
area kilns so far as the lower Thames potteries are concerned, though
roller-stamping is recorded on bag- and globular
|