|
would have promoted industrial development (Tacitus, Agricola,
xix-xx; Fulford 1981, 200; Hopkins 1980, 103). The relationship
between the Canterbury industry and the mortarium factories of Q. Valerius
Veranius and his colleagues (Hartley 1977, Group 2) is unknown, but at
least one potter can be assigned circumstantially to Canterbury in the
early years of the nucleation, Juvenalis, who stamped both mortaria and
amphorae, and whose products are found in both Britain and Gaul (4.II.3).
The dearth of known villas in mainland east Kent (discounting Thanet)
suggests that estates were directed from the city. The white clays used
for flagons and mortaria may have been quarried from the Gault Clay
deposits situated below the escarpment of the North Downs and shipped down
the Great Stour in barges, since the Brickearths available around
Canterbury are iron-rich.
The Canterbury potters would undoubtedly have benefited from
the formalisation of trading that the establishment of the Forum,
presumably synchronous with that of the theatre (cf. Wacher 1975, 180-1),
would have represented. Their repertoire included types such as tazze and
unguentaria, which found particular favour in towns and villas as
opposed to lower status rural sites, and a limited range of fine wares,
notably mica-dusted vessels (Jenkins 1956b). The concentration of the
kilns to the west of the Stour implies an element of town planning (the
Dane John site, though within the later city walls, lies to the south of
the domestic quarter), but the direct involvement of city patrons cannot
be demonstrated either in the pottery or tile industries. It is tempting
to invoke the existence of a collegium of potters which, ex officio, co-ordinated
production and distribution of their wares. Guilds were supposed legally
to confine themselves to social and
|
|
charitable activities, but it is difficult to believe that they did not
provide a forum for discussion of industrial affairs (cf. A.H.M. Jones 1974,
Chapter II).
VI. ESTATE PRODUCTION
1. Otford
The isolated location of the Otford kiln would appear to be incompatible
with its association with flagon production (nos. 102-106), which is found
normally in nucleated industries. Activity may have antedated the
Lullingstone villa (a Flavian foundation imposed on an existing farmstead)
as well as the stone villa on the Otford site itself (Swan 1984, 406). The
kiln type is unique in Kent, conforming to Swan's H5 or 6 (ibid.). It
may be surmised that the kiln was built to serve the needs of the local
community rather than a wider custom, but whether this comprised military
consumers (as Swan, 1984, favours) or civilians alone, can only be a matter
for speculation.
2. Eccles
Pottery production at Eccles, attested by a waste dump, would appear to
have preceded the construction of the villa by perhaps five years (Detsicas
1977a, 28-9). The excavator felt unable to comment on the relationship
between pottery manufacture and pre-villa occupation, but it may be surmised
that the extraordinary range of forms, drawing on Gallo-Belgic, Lyon and
other imported traditions, is related in some way to the authority that
commissioned the villa c. A.D. 65. Detsicas has observed that the
circular laconicum of the early villa (Room 32:
|