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slightly earlier in date (Fulford 1977a). British finds may all be of
fourth-century date, but there are as yet insufficient closely-dateable
finds from Kent to enable refinement of this dating to be attempted. Argonne
ware is widespread in Kent (Fig. 51), with a possible bias towards eastern
sites; it is also found with some frequency in Essex, the London area, and
central southern Britain (Fulford 1977a). The pale oxidised ‘marbled’
slip ‘a l’eponge’ ware probably from the Poitiers region (Fig.
61) has, in Britain, mostly been recorded in Hampshire and along the Channel
coast, with secondary concentrations in the lower Severn and east Kent/lower
Thames regions (Fulford 1977a; Galliou et al. 1980, fig. 2; Fig. 51
here). In Britain the forms are confined to hemispherical bowls with deep
flanges, and biconical bead-nm bowls (Fulford 1977a), but beakers are known
on the Continent (Galliou et al. 1980, fig. 4). Again, only a general
fourth-century date can be applied. A handful of sherds are known from Kent,
and this is the only import for which a western Gaulish origin can be
surmised.
Fine wares of this period of German derivation are extremely
rare, but include mottled-slip pitchers and two-handled flagons (4.IV.1) of
third- to fourth-century date (Bird 1981, 1982a; Bird and Williams 1983) and
possibly brown colour-coated flagons with white paint decoration, found at
Canterbury (Blockley and Day forthcoming) and paralleled at Oudenburg in
Flanders (Mertens and van Impe 1971, Grave 128, P1. XLV, no. la; Grave 141,
P1. XLVII, no. 3). A fine buff-fabric red-slipped ware with ‘cut-glass’
incised decoration is represented by sherds in fourth-century contexts at
Canterbury (Blockley and Day forthcoming) and Richborough (unpublished, Pit
303). The form and source are uncertain, but a bead-everted rim ovoid beaker
with an identical fabric and decoration has been published from Oudenburg (Mertens
and van Impe 1971, Grave 93, P1. XXIX, no. 1). The fine white rouletted
beakers described above (4.IV.1; no. 215 here) may also have been in use in
the fourth century, providing further
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evidence of cross-Channel trade in fine wares (cf. Fulford 1977a).
One ware that has not been described up till now in the present
volume is ‘African Red Slip’. A synthesis of this ware in Britain has
recently been published (Bird 1977), in which it has been shown that
occurrences date from the later first to the late fourth or early fifth
century. Bird has proposed that these vessels ‘are likely to have entered
with their owners, probably traders, or craftsmen’ (ibid., 272). To
her catalogue may be added a foot-ring base with internal grooving of the
body from the Chalk ‘cellar’ (unpublished, layer 8), in a sandy orange
fabric with orange-red semi-matt slip, and a sherd from Canterbury (Bird
1982a); both of these may be of late third- or fourth-century date.
The range of flagons in colour-coated ware has been described
above. Flagons and flasks generally seem to have been uncommon in the
south-east in the fourth century, and most are in dark- or red-surfaced
wares, sometimes painted or rouletted. Apart from the colour-coated wares,
these include fine grey and fine sandy grey-slip wares plus Alice Holt
neutral-slip sandy grey ware (see the following two sections). It has been
observed that there is a greater percentage of pewter and glass vessels
against pottery in the second half than in the first half of the fourth
century in the Winchester Lankhills cemetery (Clarke 1979), and this
increasing availability of non-ceramic vessels may have had repercussions
for the fine pottery industries of Roman Britain. Fulford (1975a, 134)
has observed that decorated beakers and closed forms in New Forest
colour-coated ware tend to decline before red slipped bowls, and Howe et
al. (1980, 8) have proposed a marked decrease in the production of
beakers in the Nene valley. However, the flagons of the Nene Valley and
Alice Holt industries, and both flagons and beakers from the Oxfordshire
kilns, show no such trends. There is insufficient evidence from funerary
contexts in
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