nevertheless occurs in widely-scattered locations, such as the High Rocks
hillfort site in the Weald (Money 1968) and the rural industrial area near
Cooling (Dickinson, in Pollard forthcoming, b). The Neronian-Vespasianic
period, c. A.D. 55—80, witnessed massive importation of
South Gaulish samian ware to southern Britain, as studies of stamped and
decorated vessels indicate (Bird and Marsh 1978; Bird 1982b, and
forthcoming). The forms are predominantly shallow dishes, bowls and cups.
First-century samian of Lezoux origin also occurs in the south-east but very
rarely (e.g. Bird and Marsh 1978). These were complemented by beakers in
colour-coated wares primarily with ‘rough-cast’ decoration: particles of
sand or fine clay scattered on the surfaces prior to slipping.
Paradoxically, the major supplier of these beakers to Britain was not the
South Gaulish industry that was responsible for the vast majority of
pre-Flavian samian, but the Lyon factories on the upper Rhóne (Greene
1979a). However, the beakers, and the cups with which they are associated,
are exceedingly rare in comparison with samian products, despite being
produced throughout the Claudio-Neronian period. Vessels in Lyon ware
regularly occur in pre-and early-Flavian contexts on the major urban sites
of London, Southwark and Canterbury, and appear also to have been
commonplace at Rich-borough. Elsewhere Lyon ware has been recorded by the
present author on only four sites: Rochester, Wingham, Springhead and
Buckland Hill (Fig. 19) to which may be added sherds from Eccles and
Faversham (Greene 1979a, 42). Three of these sites are villas of Neronian or
Flavian foundation, whilst Rochester was an urban site and Springhead a ‘small
town’, with a religious centre founded probably in the later Flavian or
Trajanic period (Penn 1959). The status of Buckland Hill is uncertain. The
unusual lead-glazed Central Gaulish ware, also known to British
archaeologists as St. Rémy ware, is the only other pre-Flavian import to
have achieved an extensive distribution (Fig. 19). It was apparently
considerably less common than
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Lyon ware, however, for example at Canterbury and Southwark (Bird et al.
1978b), although the number of occurrences of flagons in funerary contexts
suggests that these forms may have found especial favour as votive
objects. Other forms in this ware include cups, beakers and bowls (Greene
1978a, b; 1979a). The colour-coated products of pre-Flavian industries in
South Gaul, Central Gaul, Spain and the Lower Rhineland are extremely rare
finds in Britain. Richborough is paramount in importance as a location for
such discoveries, a reflection no doubt of its function as a military
supply base and official port of entry to the Province in the first
century A.D. (Cunliffe 1968; Greene 1979a). That these exceptional finds
were personal possessions of base personnel rather than traded objects is
suggested by the virtual absence of these wares from the nearby town of
Canterbury, which carried out a trade in coarse pottery with Richborough
(see below). Central Gaulish rough-cast ware alone of the minor
colour-coated wares of Richborough has been recognised in the town, and
even that could be Flavian rather than pre-Flavian in date, as the cup
forms diagnostic of the latter period have not been recorded; all
recognisable finds are of beakers, forms produced in both periods. ‘Pompeian
Red’ platters with internal slip were also probably imported from
Central Gaul in the pre-Flavian and later periods (Peacock 1977c, Fabric
3), occurring in Claudio-Neronian contexts at Canterbury and Richborough;
Mediterranean suppliers of this ware are also suspected to have been
operating in the period up to c. A.D. 75 (ibid., 159).
The dominant fine wares on most sites in Kent, certainly in
the eastern region, are indigenous grog-, sand- and flint-tempered
products of ‘Aylesford-Swarling’ and ‘Gallo-Belgic’ derivation.
These include globular, biconical and butt-shaped beakers with corrugated,
grooved, cordoned and fine combed decoration (e.g. nos. 32 and 33), and
flagons (nos. 35—38). The latter two
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