been confined to a handful of concerns of local significance only and a very
small trade in imported coarse wares. There are no kilns of this period
known in east Kent outside of Canterbury. An enigmatic group of sandy ware
jars from Richborough (nos. 85—88 here) hints at production there:
formally a late first-early second date would be appropriate (5.IV.2).
Fabric examination under a hand-lens of reed-rim bowls and bead-rim necked
jars from Wye suggests that certain vessels, in a finer sandy fabric than
that commonly used for Canterbury grey wares, may be from a third, probably
local, source.
The importation of coarse pottery to east Kent in this period
(amphorae apart) seems to have been almost entirely confined to mortaria
from Brockley Hill (vessels at Wye, Canterbury, Richborough and Dover —
see Appendix 3) and possibly potteries producing fine white wares, if these
were not local products (cf. Hartley 1968). Vessels of Hartley’s Group 2
(1977), possibly Kent products, occur on several sites throughout the
region, suggesting that, as in west Kent, mortaria were generally adopted by
the turn of the century. There are a handful of ‘poppyhead’ beaker
sherds from Canterbury, Richborough and Dover of ‘Highgate Wood type’
fabric, in unstratified contexts. Alice Holt grey wares are represented by
bead-rim jars at Canterbury and Highstead, and a ‘Surrey bowl’ (as no.
99 here) in an Antonine context but possibly imported in the
Flavian-Trajanic period (Frere 1970, fig. 10, no. 1). Sherds of Brockley
Hill buff ware occur at Birchington, of uncertain form, and a reed-rim bowl
in the same ware was recovered from a pit dated late first-mid second
century at Richborough (Pit 182, Bushe-Fox 1949; this vessel unpublished).
Comb-stabbed beakers of Camulodunum 108 form (Hawkes and Hull 1947: see
discussion above, pre-early Flavian period) occur in several pit groups of
late first to early or mid second-century date at Richborough, this, period
coinciding with their greatest popularity at
|
|
Colchester (Hull 1958), and other examples have come from Canterbury
(unpublished, in a late Flavian-Trajanic context from Marlowe Avenue) and
Dover (Wilison 1981, no. 827, unstratified).
Amphorae probably occur on most sites of this period although
firm stratigraphic evidence to support this proposition is lacking. Body
sherds and Dressel 20 rims, of South Spanish fabric, are widely found on
sites whose life-span included the Flavian-Trajanic period. Other types
include Dressel 30 (South Gaulish) and Dressel 7—11 (South Spanish) at
Highstead (Arthur forthcoming) and a possible Dressel 30 from Wye.
Canterbury and Richborough exhibit a wide variety of amphorae (cf. Arthur
1986; Callender 1968), including possible east Kent products (see above for
Juvenalis stamp; also Jenkins 1950, no. 48, in an oxidised Canterbury
fabric) of the late first and second centuries. Canterbury amphorae are
further discussed below 4.111.3).
4. The Coarse Wares of Central Northern Kent
There is a lack of closed mid-Flavian to Trajanic groups from this area
on which to base discussion of the pottery of this period and its
implications for studies of continuity, trade and exchange. It is clear from
studies of groups of mid-to-late Flavian date at Brenley Corner and
mid-first to mid-second century date at Radfield (Baxter and Mills 1978, the
Pit; and unpublished material) that grey sandy wares of Canterbury origin
achieved only very limited penetration of the area between the Forest of
Blean and the Medway. One lid-seated jar and one flange-rim bowl have been
recovered from Radfield, in unstratified levels, whilst Brenley Corner’s
pottery includes one reed-rim bowl and one lid-seated jar from late second
to mid-third-century pits, and two lid-seated jars and a reeded-flange-rim
vessel from unstratified
|