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III. HOUSEHOLD INDUSTRIES
1. Known Kilns
The simple kilns recorded by Ian Jackson on the Upchurch Marshes
(Jackson 1962; 1972/3; Swan 1984) were associated with pottery described
as 'hand-made', flint-and grog-tempered. A localised distribution of
flint-tempered ware in the mid-first century A.D. around the Medway
estuary and western Swale has been plotted (Fig. 17; 4.1.2), which with
the evidence of kilns and the fabrics themselves is suggestive of a
household industry.
2. Postulated Household Industries: regional Traders
The study of Romano-British pottery in Kent has brought to light a
number of coarse wares whose fabric characteristics and distribution
patterns are consistent with the model of household industry production.
The bulk of this pottery is datable to the first and to the late third to
early fifth century, but the intervening period is nowhere devoid of such
material. The wares include, in the early period, shelly, sandy and 'Patch
Grove' wares in west Kent and grog- and flint-tempered wares in central
and east Kent (Chapters 3, 4.1-II). Grog-and flint-tempered pottery is
also a feature of the late Roman period, the latter primarily at
Canterbury, the former throughout Kent at least from the Cray Valley
eastwards (4.IV, 4.V). Such pottery tends to be fairly soft and either
coil-built or at least of an appearance suggestive of construction on a
turntable. Storage jars and smaller jars are particularly common, the
former occurring in non-sandy, non-wheel-thrown wares throughout the Roman
period in all parts of Kent (and also in southern Essex). Platters, necked
bowls, cups and flagons are forms mainly of the first
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century and dishes mainly of the late period. Two kiln sites in Essex may be
linked with the production of shelly and sandy wares in the late first
century A.D. (Mucking: M.U. Jones 1974; and Tilbury Gun Hill: Drury and
Rodwell 1973) but, apart from the Upchurch kilns, no production centres have
been recorded in Kent. A handful of 'Belgic' grog-tempered vessels were
recovered from the furnace of a kiln at Canterbury dateable to the mid-first
century A.D. (Jenkins 1956a, fig. 8, nos. 27-29, 31-2), but it is more
likely that they were incorporated in the backfill (St. Stephen's Area II
kiln). Whilst it is possible that kilns for the firing of 'Patch Grove',
late Roman grog-tempered and the other wares listed above may yet be
discovered, it is at least equally likely that they were fired in clamps or
bonfires, leaving little archaeological trace.
Extensive patterns of distribution have been uncovered for
several of these wares (e.g. Figs. 17, 20, 31, and 45), with a high
intensity of usage of any one ware on sites several kilometres apart
(Appendix 5). These could reflect itinerancy of production or peddling of
vessels manufactured at one place, or other mechanisms of dispersal (6.X,
and Pollard 1983a, 415-417). The isolation of the Essex 'graffito'
jars (Jones 1972) as a group within the southern Essex/west Kent/east Surrey
'shelly bead-rim jar' tradition carries the implication that in at least
one instance a 'household industry' ware was produced by a number of
different potters working to the same or similar specifications at a
distance from one another rather than by a single community with extensive
exchange connections. Other examples of 'local variations' on a
tradition include the Thanet fine sandy and Medway marshes flint-tempered
versions of the 'Aylesford-Swarling' furrowed ware (4.1.3), and the Port
Lympne 'grog plus miscellaneous
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