|
colour-coated and buff wares, Mancetter-Hartshill white ware, and Argonne
red colour-coated ware also occur; Hartley’s map (Hartley 1973a, fig. 6)
implies that Mancetter-Hartshill wares were also widely distributed, and may
be confined to the fourth century, in east Kent (Hartley 1968). One fragment
of Argonne ware, from Port Lympne, can only be given a broad later second-
to fourth-century date (Young 1980, 277). Hartley (1968) has recorded a New
Forest ware vessel at Richborough, but this find is not confirmed by Fulford
(1975a). The late fourth-century pottery groups from Canterbury are not
large enough to enable any decline in mortarium usage (cf. the preceding
section) to be detected. There is no reason to disbelieve that Oxfordshire
wares at least were imported throughout the fourth and into the early fifth
century.
There is no information on the importation of amphorae to east
Kent known to the present author at the time of writing. The report on
Canterbury amphorae of the late Iron Age and Roman periods prepared by
Arthur (1986) may change this situation.
4. The Coarse Wares of Central-Northern Kent
The evidence of fourth-century pottery from this region is derived from
small collections of funerary material from Milton, Sittingbourne and
Faversham, a handful of burial groups from Ospringe, and unstratified sherds
from Radfield, Brenley Corner and Ospringe. The ascription of coarse pottery
to this century is dependent upon the association with externally-dateable
fine wares, mostly colour-coated vessels from Oxfordshire and the Nene
valley. These can generally only give a late third- to fourth-century
date-range, although fourth-century forms have been found on most sites,
excepting Faversham and Brenley Corner, the latter having produced
fourth-century coins,
|
|
however.
The presence of these fine wares implies that this region
participated in the extensive trade in ceramics in the fourth century. This
is underlined by the occurrence of Alice Holt grey ware flagons at Ospringe
and Sittingbourne, and a ‘Portchester "D" jar at Milton. Two
dishes from the Ospringe cemetery are of fourth-century form (Gillam 1970,
Type 330) and may both be in Dorset BB1 (see also 4.IV.4 above). Local
production of reduced sand-tempered wheel-thrown wares may have continued,
although there is no direct evidence of this. Several examples of ‘Alice
Holt type’ grey sandy ware globular jars (Lyne and Jefferies 1979, Class
3B. 11) have been recorded, from Ospringe (Whiting et al. 1931, no.
499), Milton and Sittingbourne, the Milton vessels being apparently
unslipped. Fine grey sandy slipped tall-necked bulbous beakers from Milton
and Faversham are of uncertain origin, but could conceivably be from a Kent
source. One possible ‘east Kent’ BB1 vessel (4.IV.3, 4.V.3) a
bead-and-flange dish, is in an unstratified collection of sherds from
Ospringe. Grog-tempered wares are ubiquitous, but as with other late fabrics
in this region their date of introduction cannot, at present, be ascertained
(4.IV.4). Vessels in this ware include jars from burials at Ospringe and
Milton and from an unstratified level at Radfield, and dog-dishes from
burials at Milton and Faversham. Mortaria are mostly from the Oxfordshire
industry, but a painted Nene Valley vessel has been recorded at Radfield.
The one possible fourth-century amphora, from Ospringe, has been discussed
above (4.IV.4).
There are insufficient data to allow Jaccard’s correlation
coefficients to be calculated. It should, however, be noted that
fourth-century Continental imports have yet to be positively identified in
this region, although a wide range of Romano-British imports are present
(cf.
|