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The Roman Pottery of Kent by Dr
Richard J. Pollard
- Chapter 4 page 123
Doctoral thesis completed in 1982, published 1988
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'Saxon Shore' fort system and the construction of town walls. Kent was
clearly affected by these developments, three forts being built in the late
third century (Dover, Port Lympne and Richborough - Cunliffe 1980, 285-7),
along with the city walls of Canterbury and possibly Rochester (Frere et
al. 1982; Pollard 1981a). On present evidence the use of fine pottery in
Kent did not increase markedly in this period, despite the importation of
Oxfordshire wares; a more modest expansion in the fine ware market is
plausible, however, at least in terms of the ratio of fine to coarse pottery
consumption.
2. The Coarse Wares of West Kent
The most striking feature of the coarse pottery of west Kent in the
middle and later years of the third century is the high degree of
conservatism expressed. The region is dominated by coarse and fine sandy,
fine sandy burnished and BB2 wares, for which kiln sites are known on the
Cliffe peninsula. Other wares of probably local origin are confined to a
handful of 'Patch Grove' and grog-tempered storage jars, and a small
quantity of grog-tempered jars and dishes. The importation of coarse wares
may have begun in the final quarter of the century, comprising grey fine
sandy slipped ware from the Alice Holt forest (Surrey-Hampshire border) and
BB1 from Dorset. It is possible that some fine grey sandy wheel-thrown jars
were also imported from north of the Thames. Mortaria were also imported
from Oxfordshire and, possibly, also east Kent and the Surrey-Sussex region.
With the collapse of the trade in amphorae with southern Spain at the end of
the second century, the acquisition of coarse pottery either as containers
or for the vessels' intrinsic worth appears to have ceased for a century
or more.
The range of pottery produced by the kilns of the Cliffe
peninsula, including Higham (Catherall 1983, Kilns B and
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C) and possibly Cooling (Pollard forthcoming, b), and also on the Essex side
of the lower Thames (Mucking - Jones and Rodwell 1973, Kilns IV, V and
possibly III), underwent little augmentation in the period under review. The
late second-century forms described above (4.III.2) continued to be
produced, with the notable exceptions of the pie-dish, decorated dishes, and
lid-seated jar (no. 201 here). The middle years of the third century
apparently witnessed a 'phasing-out' of the plain pie-dish (and also of
its decorated counterpart, if this had not already been discarded) in favour
of the bead-and-flange dish. The latter form is absent (in BB2) from Carpow,
a fort on the River Tay in eastern Scotland which received BB2 apparently
until its military abandonment c. A.D. 215/216 (Wright 1974;
information on the pottery from J. P. Gillam), but is present in quantity in
the Chalk cellar material of the last quarter of the third century, where it
outnumbers pie-dishes by between 9:1 and 15:1 (Johnston 1972, layers 8 and
7, respectively, nos. 32 and 34; quantification by the present author). At
Lullingstone it is absent from the late second- to mid third-century context
in Room 10 (Pollard 1987, Group XVII) where pie- and dog-dishes were
apparently common (Meates et al. 1952, nos. 44-58); two vessels of
uncertain fabric, but Cliffe peninsula/Mucking form (ibid., nos. 63-4)
occur in a later third-century group along with a coin of Severus Alexander,
samian of c. A.D. 200, and a late second- to early fourth-century
cavetto rim folded jar (no. 192 here), the deposit being sealed by a mid
fourth-century level (Meates 1979, 50-1, and fig. 10). It is possible that
the plain dog-dish increased in usage during the middle of the third century
in relation to other dish forms, but the Chalk evidence suggests that this
may have been short-lived.
Bead-and-flange dishes are known from kiln sites at Higham
(Pollard 1983b, Gross Form V;
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