|
but it is not clear how extensive the use of coinage was on rural sites even
in the late fourth century, when ceramic trade appears to have still
flourished. In short, late Roman grog-tempered ware production and
distribution may have partially operated outside of a coin-using system
within the Roman period, and may have been the output of a mode of
production similar to that hypothesised for the Germanic wares. Its
disappearance from the archaeological record during the first half of the
fifth century is probable, for sites have not been found in Kent wherein
this ware was used in the absence of products of the centralised industries,
a
|
|
situation that might appertain if grog-tempered ware outlived these
industries by more than, say, a quarter of a century. The lack of late
fourth- to fifth-century stratification on most rural sites prohibits the
pursuit of this line of argument, as does discussion of the effect of the
Germanic migrations upon rural life in Roman Britain. At present it seems as
likely that the breakdown of social order precipitated the abandonment of
potting in the Romano-British tradition for local consumption as that
broader economic factors such as the loss of urban markets and the collapse
of the monetary system were responsible (see also Pollard 1983a, 519-35).
|
