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The Roman Pottery of Kent by Dr Richard J. Pollard  -  Chapter 4  page 105
Doctoral thesis completed in 1982, published 1988


Fig. 35. Early second-century BB1: Distribution. + = absent.
   The Ospringe cemetery provides an unusual example in Kent of the large scale re-use of amphorae as cremation urns. These were not available for study, but it may be deemed probable that the majority were Dressel 20 South Spanish types: five vessels, all globular, were recorded at the nearby Faversham villa (Philp 1968, 82), and the form is also known at Radfield (Baxter and Mills 1978) and Brenley Corner (unpublished). Some of the Ospringe vessels are described as 'wine amphorae' (Whiting 1921, 1923, 1925, 1926; Whiting et al. 1931), perhaps reflecting the misunderstanding of the contents of Dressel 20 that was  current at that time (cf. Peacock 1978). Thirty-eight instances of amphorae in funerary contexts were recorded at Ospringe, a cemetery founded in the mid-second century and in use until at least the early fourth century. One of these is probably of Tintagel B iv ware (Whiting et a!. 1931, no. 502; see Peacock 1977d, 298), associated with a second-century glass vessel and a necked roll-rim jar of second- to fourth-century type. Other instances of Dressel 20 in funerary contexts include two from the Lockham walled cemetery to the south-east of Maidstone (Smythe 1883; Jessup 1959)

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