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The most common wares throughout the second and third quarters
of the century are, as in the Severan period, in sand-tempered wheel-thrown
fabrics. Burnished unslipped fine and coarse wares and BB2 predominate, with
plain sandy ware somewhat less. Scorched and vitrified sherds occur not
infrequently, but are in a small minority. The predominant unslipped form is
the necked jar; variants with short-everted, rounded, angular-rolled (cf.
nos. 197 and 199 here), and pendant "swan’s neck" (no. 203) rims
all occur, the latter so rarely as to suggest importation rather than local
production (cf. Fig. 45). Most of these necked vessels are undecorated,
except for burnishing; the narrow burnished zone on the shoulder is
apparently confined to the first half of the century, later vessels as well
as some contemporaries exhibiting a broader zone. A narrow ruled zone on the
shoulder is a rare feature, recalling the more commonplace usage in Essex
and Hertfordshire (cf. Mucking: Jones and Rodwell 1973, no. 45; Old Ford:
Sheldon 1971, fig. 8, no. 28; Sheldon 1972, fig. 8, no. 13; McIsaac et
al., 1979, no. 102). Plain vessels also occur. Unslipped sand-tempered
wheel-thrown wares comprise between 35 per cent and 45 per cent of
coarse wares. Everted-rim neckless jars, burnished dog-dishes and, in the
mid- to late third century bead-and-flange dishes, are occasionally
encountered in these wares. The range of ‘north-west Kent’ fine sandy
burnished wares are rare finds in east Kent (Fig. 46), which as in the late
Antonine-Severan period was probably a peripheral area in the marketing of
all Cliffe peninsula wares, except for BB2 (and fine grey micaceous wares,
if these are to be attributed in part to this source).
BB2 in east Kent occurs mainly in dish forms. The typological
development of these forms may parallel that discernible in west Kent, as is
to be expected if BB2 was predominantly an import from the Cliffe peninsula
and south Essex kilns. However, it seems possible that pie-dishes may have
been used in greater numbers in the middle and later
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years of the third century in Canterbury than on west Kent sites such as
Chalk, Maidstone and Rochester. The assemblage from the ‘black earth’
that was the highest Roman level on Frere’s theatre sites (1970, Trench
DIII, layer 39) included plain pie-dishes and bead-and-flange dishes in a
ratio of c. 3:1, in comparison with west Kent ratios for mid- to late
third-century groups in the order of 1:1.3 to 1:15 (4.IV.2). It is certainly
possible that some of the pie-dishes from layer 39 are residual early
third-century pieces, but even so the ratio would be at odds with that of
1:9 from Chalk (the lowest fill of the ‘cellar’, layer 8 [Johnston 1972]
which included undoubted early third-century and earlier residual pottery).
The ‘black earth’ includes several fabrics only introduced to Canterbury
in the final quarter of the third century, including Oxfordshire red
colour-coated ware and ‘late Roman’ grog-tempered ware, and a coin suite
dated to not later than c. A.D. 290—300 plus one issue of c. A.D.
330—335 (Kraay in Frere 1970, 108, footnote 13); the BB2 group contrasts
with fourth-century groups from Canterbury, wherein pie-dishes are extremely
uncommon and bead-and-flange dishes considerably more common (4.V.3). One
solution to this paradox might be that Canterbury BB2 was not primarily
acquired from west Kent/south Essex, but from Colchester, where the plain
pie-dish was manufactured at least until the middle of the third century
(Hull 1963, Form 38, from Kiln 32; Kilns 27—28 are misdated by Hull, and
should be attributed to the late second to early third century, ci. Harden
and Green 1978), without apparently being supplanted by the BB2
bead-and-flange dish. Williams (1977, 212) has claimed that Colchester BB2
was imported to Canterbury in the late second to early third century. Local
east Kent production is also plausible (ibid., heavy mineral analysis
Group XVIII, and XX, no. 4).
Bead-and-flange dishes do, however, occur widely in east Kent
(Fig. 46, ‘flanged bowl’),
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