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large-scale importation of BB2 after c. A.D. 180.
Other contexts from Canterbury contain varying quantities of plain and
decorated BB2 dishes, but a consistent feature is the low incidence often
amounting to a complete absence of BB2 jars, particularly in contexts with
termini ante quos in the early third century. This is in marked
contrast with Dover, where everted-rim, cavetto-rim and bead-rim BB2 jars
seem to have been abundant in Period III (e.g. Wilison 1981, nos. 737,
739, 742, 745, 747, 750—2, 756, 759, 772, 775: identification by the
present author), although present in smaller numbers in Period II (Willson
1981: probably one only — no. 606 — from a dump containing 52
published vessels). BB2 jars also occur in several second/early
third-century pits at Richborough (Bushe-Fox 1932, Pit 52, no. 251;
1949, Pit 113, no. 464; Pit 182, unpublished; Pit 184, no. 427; Cunliffe
1968, Pit 255, unpublished). BB2-derived jars have been recovered
from sites in east Kent (e.g. Folkestone and Highstead, both unstratified
and unpublished), but on the whole the forms appear to have had little
impact in comparison with their ubiquity in west Kent, and with BB2 dishes
throughout Kent (cf. Figs. 25, 30 and 45). The existence of a
direct trade between BB2 potteries on the Thames and perhaps at Colchester
and coastal sites such as Dover and Richborough may be postulated;
seaborne transportation of this ware to the northern military zone may be
considered a certainty (Gillam 1973; Breeze 1977; Williams 1977) from c.
A.D. 140—250, as may the delivery of Colchester mortaria to Kent. It
is plausible that the Classis Britannica, in its role as a. supply
unit, was directly involved in this movement of material at least to
military sites, but the existence of ‘military contracts’ for pottery
to the northern zone is a contentious issue (cf. Gillam 1973; Breeze 1977;
Williams 1977; Fulford 1981; Pollard 1983a, 492—505). The shape of jars
lends itself less readily to compact stowage than does the conical dish,
and it may have been the extra cargo space required, and greater
vulnerability to
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breakage, that discouraged intensive trading in BB2 jars to inland sites in
east Kent wherein some reloading onto shallow draft vessels and/or overland
carriers would have been unavoidable. It is noticeable also that the jar and
flask forms of the third-century lower Thames BB2 and burnished ware
industries are also much rarer in relation to BB2 dishes of that period than
in west Kent and southern Essex (Figs. 45—46 and Appendix 3), throughout
east Kent even at Dover and, on evidence of published material, Reculver
(Philp 1957; 1959).
The expansion of the importation of BB2 to east Kent in the
last quarter of the second century coincided broadly with a marked decline
in the production of Canterbury sandy wares. However, it must not be assumed
that the pressure exerted by other industries was the sole, or even the
primary, cause of this demise of the urban industry’s fortunes. Fulford
(1977b) has argued convincingly that a general shift of emphasis from urban
to rural production was experienced in the late second and early third
centuries, coinciding with a widespread recession in the pottery industry
(Pollard 1983a, 378—83, 492—519; cf. Hull 1963, and Young 1977a). The
degree of temporal finesse that is afforded by the dating evidence for
south-eastern Roman Britain — primarily coins and pottery — is not good
enough to allow the details of the decline of Canterbury and the rise of the
BB2 industries to be recovered; it is possible that the success of the
latter was a consequence, not a prime cause, of the failure of the former.
The BB2 industries were not the sole heirs to the Canterbury markets,
however. Small quantities of BB1, probably from Dorset, have been recovered
from late second to early/mid third-century contexts at Dover (e.g. Willson
1981, nos. 468, 696, 773, 871, and 877) and possibly Reculver (Philp 1957,
nos. 27 and 30), whilst second- to early third-century forms have
occasionally been recognised in Canterbury. This ware was virtually absent
from east Kent during the Hadrianic period, when it
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