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(ibid., nos. 87 and 79), ‘Castor boxes’ (4.IV. 1), flagons often
with a slight pouring lip (ibid., nos. 63—8) and short-necked
angular-rim wide-mouth jars (ibid., nos. 75—7). It is
apparent that there is some degree of differentiation between colour-coated
ware forms from Oxfordshire and the Nene valley that were exported to Kent.
The dish, ‘Castor box’ and jar forms were all produced by the former
industry (Young 1977a, Types C93—4, C87, C18) but appear to have been rare
in eastern Britain, though more common in Oxfordshire and the Severn valley (ibid.).
The Oxfordshire pinched-lip flagon (ibid., Type C12) is rare
throughout Britain. In contrast, bowls and mortaria from the Nene valley,
including samian ‘derivatives’ (Howe et al. 1980, nos. 80—4)
and a ‘hammer-head’ flange-rim conical open bowl (ibid., no. 88)
are infrequently encountered in Kent, though a wide range of forms has been
recovered from Canterbury (M. Green, pers. comm.). Oxfordshire colour-coated
bowls and mortaria are both diverse and abundant throughout Kent (Fig. 51),
being by far the most common ware in which red-surfaced bowls of the late
third- to early fifth-century are found (cf. Fig. 51). Beakers were the main
form in which the two industries were in direct competition, but production
of these in the Nene valley ‘appears to have declined during the fourth
century and it is possible that the percentage made of the whole output
after the middle of the century was very low’ (Howe et al. 1980,
8); in Kent at least this left Oxfordshire with a virtual monopoly of the
market for beakers in the late fourth century. The ratio of Oxfordshire to
Nene Valley colour-coated ware quantities at Canterbury does seem to shift
in favour of the former over the course of the fourth century, implying that
this industry was more able to make use of the coastal trade routes around
the Thames estuary and Straits of Dover. A regression analysis studying the
percentage of Oxfordshire wares as proportions of assemblages throughout
southern Britain (Fulford and Hodder 1974) has provoked the hypothesis that
the Thames estuary was of
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especial significance in the distribution of these wares; comparative
statistics concerning Nene Valley wares have not as yet been published. It
is probable that the latter continued to reach Kent to the end of the fourth
or even into the fifth century. The industry itself was almost certainly ‘in
full production’ at the beginning of the fifth (Howe et al. 1980,
10), and sherds have been recovered from deposits of this date at
Lullingstone and Canterbury.
A number of other Romano-British fine ware industries achieved
some share of the trade in Kent in the fourth century (Figs. 57—8), but
only on a regional level. The Much Hadham industry is the most important,
quantitatively, of these, having the advantage of an established commerce
dating back to the third century (4.IV.1). The oxidised ware is found
throughout north Kent (Fig. 34), but is proportionally more common in the
north-west, particularly at Springhead and Chalk. Jars, including wide- and
narrow-necked types sometimes with ‘pie-crust’ pendant frills on the rim
and ring-stamped decoration on the body (e.g. at Canterbury), are
widespread, but bowls are mainly confined to the north-west (Fig. 51). Mortarium
sherds occur at Springhead. Relief-moulded zoomorphic decoration has been
recorded on a bead-rim bulbous bowl at Chalk (unpublished), and
dimple-and-boss motifs on a similar form from Highsted, near Sittingbourne
(Jessup 1935, fig. 3, no. 1). This vessel is now lost, but the description
suggests a Hadham source. The motifs are part of a style commonly termed ‘Romano-Saxon’,
from the contentious belief that the tastes of Germanic mercenaries in
fourth-century eastern Britain influenced the Romano-British potters’
designs. This hypothesis was formulated by Myres (1956), and has been
adopted by other authors in more recent papers (e.g. Rodwell 1970a; Hurst
1976, 290—2); however, Gillam (1979) has argued strongly against the
association of the style with Germanic mercenaries, and the present author
finds himself
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