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3. Expansion and Standardisation: the Flavian to
early Antonine Period
The massive expansion of the Canterbury pottery industry in the late
first century has been described above (4.II.3). Products included reduced
and oxidised coarse sandy wares, and buff to off-white wares (nos. 63—84)
and were marketed throughout east Kent and, occasionally, further afield,
mortaria having been recognised at Lullingstone (Pollard 1987, Fabrics 44—45)
and Boulogne (4.11.3). The evidence for continuity between the North Gaulish
and Stuppington Lane potters and their mid-Flavian heirs is inconclusive.
The differences in form outweigh the similarities (in flagons and jars), but
this reflects developments in contemporary industries in Britain with an
urban orientation (cf. 6.VII), and there is no reason to think that the
industry did not grow directly from Neronian roots. The names of Juvenalis
and Valentinus have been linked with the Canterbury industry (4.II.3,
4.III.3) in the second century, both stamping mortaria (e.g. no. 71), and
Juvenalis amphorae, also.
The kiln sites of this period include Dane John Gardens
(Webster 1940), Whitehall Road (now Rheims Way) (Jenkins 1956b), Whitehall
Gardens (Jenkins 1960), North Lane (Bennett et al. 1978), and St.
Stephen’s Road, Area I (Jenkins 1956a). North Lane may be the earliest,
with Flavian-Trajanic pottery, whilst Dane John and kiln III at Whitehall
Gardens are Antonine, as may be the Whitehall Road kiln associated with
mica-dusted face-jars, and other forms including pie-dishes (Swan 1984,
391).
One kiln site not mentioned so far in this account is that off
Stour Street (ibid., 390, Site 3). Provisional assessment is that the
three kilns are of mid first-century date, and perhaps belonged to the same
group of potters as the Reed Avenue and St. Stephen’s Road Area II sites.
The range of forms and fabrics produced by the
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Canterbury industry underwent little change throughout this period (4.II.3,
4.III.3), though a diverse range of flagons was found on the Dane John site
(e.g. nos. 60, 75, 76, 78—84 here). The high degree of standardisation
exhibited by the industry as a whole in the second century is a phenomenon
widespread in Romano-British potteries of the period, and may be interpreted
as reflecting stability in producer-consumer relations as local monopolies
were carved out.
4. The Decline of the Canterbury Industry in the
second half of the second Century
The shifting fortunes of the Canterbury industry have been charted above
(4.III.3). BB2 became increasingly common in the city itself during the
latter part of the second century and may have captured coastal markets such
as Dover and the waning port of Richborough as early as A.D. 130—150. The
hypothesized production of BB2 in east Kent is likely to have accounted for
only a small proportion of the emergent ware’s market share in the region,
with Colchester and Thameside potteries providing the bulk. The range of
reduced and oxidised sandy ware forms found in Canterbury diminishes towards
the end of the second century, as the characteristic forms of the industry
at its peak were discarded. This may have been a reaction to the pressures
of competition (cf. Fulford 1975a, 133—4). The jar, bowl and dish forms of
late Antonine-
Severan Canterbury are far less distinctive than many of those they
supplanted, rendering definition of the putative ‘late’ industry’s
markets much more difficult on typological grounds than in early periods.
The city of Canterbury continued to witness building
construction in the later second and early third centuries (Williams 1947,
68—87; Frere 1970; Blockley and Day forthcoming). The
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