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The Roman Pottery of Kent
by Dr Richard J. Pollard  -  Chapter 4  page 118
Doctoral thesis completed in 1982, published 1988

both in pale pink ware of possibly Central Gaulish origin. More remarkable still is the late second-century samian bowl inscribed with a Chi Rho graffito of a style current in the second half of the fourth century, found unstratified in Canterbury (Day 1980, 6). These finds are exceptional, and it is extremely difficult to ascertain the general rate of survival of serviceable samian during the late Roman period in Britain.
   The importation of Trier ‘Rhenish’ ware is thought to have ceased in the mid-third century (Greene 1978c, 56) at a time when the incursions of barbarian raiders wrought considerable damage to the East Gaulish potteries (ibid., 57). Occasional survivals of complete vessels are encountered, however; the votive beaker from Lullingstone (Meates 1979, 36 and Plate Va and b) may be an example. The trade in mottled-slip flagons may have survived the mid-third century. These vessels (see Appendix 2 for description) are dated to the third century in Germany (Gose 1950, Type 262), and occur in contexts of the mid-third century or later in Britain (Bird 1981; Bird and Williams 1983) where dateable. Kent and London would seem to have been the main recipients of these vessels, including finds at Dover, Richborough (Bushe-Fox 1949, no. 379), Ospringe (Whiting et al. 1931, no. 263), Lyminge (Kelly 1962: vessel in Maidstone Museum), Eastry (Pollard 1982, no. 12) and Canterbury (M. Green, pers. comm.), the latter in contexts securely dateable to the mid-fourth century A.D. (Green forthcoming). Pitchers in similar ware, probably from the Trier area, are represented by body sherds of two vessels from Canterbury (Bird 1982a; the forms are Gose 1950, Types 277/278/280 and Type 272). These are forms of a late third- to fourth-century date in Germany.
   Samian of second- to early third-century date can form a large proportion of the third-century fine wares; for example at Chalk the lowest layer in the third century cellar (Johnston 1972, layer 8) included samian to the sum of 

roughly one-quarter of the fine wares (Appendix 5 here). However, fine reduced wares are consistently predominant over both Continental and Romano-British colour-coated wares in quantitative terms. Canterbury fine ware assemblages of late second to mid-third, and mid-third to early fourth-century dates include between 50 per cent and 90 per cent of this ware (by vessel rim equivalents), the lower figures reflecting the presence of samian. The proportion of total assemblages of fine and coarse wares that fine reduced wares comprise ranges from 12 per cent to 35 per cent. In west Kent these wares were of less importance relative to others, rarely totalling more than 5 per cent of a complete assemblage, or more than around half of a fine ware assemblage (Appendix 5). This differentiation is in part due to the presence of fine sandy burnished wares of Cliffe peninsula or south Essex origin (Fig. 46), which included flasks and beakers in their range of forms (4.V.2). It is argued that the Upchurch Marshes industry declined in output during the third century, with the Cliffe area taking a major share of the market for finely-finished products in the area between the Darent and the Medway.
    The ‘poppyhead’ beaker, including plain, rouletted and barbotine decorated types (nos. 145, 150 and 146 here), appears to have remained the dominant fine reduced ware form for perhaps the first two-thirds of the century, in company with necked bulbous (nos. 152—4) and bag-shaped beakers (cf. no. 147), flasks (nos. 170—3), everted- and cavetto-rim beakers and jars of BB2 form and decoration, and bead-nm necked jars and bowls (e.g. nos. 143, 174-5). Segmental bowls, often with grooved-flange rims (cf. nos. 130 and 163) occur less frequently, but are present both in east and west Kent. Cordoned bead-rim necked jars and bowls became increasingly important amongst fine reduced wares at Canterbury and possibly also in west Kent, if the evidence from late third-century deposits at Chalk (Johnston 1972: quantification by

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