First-century pottery manufacture at Eccles, Kent
by Alec Detsicas
Roman Pottery Studies in Britain and Beyond.
BAR S30 Oxford, 19-36
76.
PICTURE Creamy fabric, buff core,
pitted and distorted neck from a heavy jug, slightly down-turned rim-profile.
77.
PICTURE Creamy, sandy fabric, pitted, this neck is over-fired to pink and has a well
formed rim-profile, which is hooked and undercut like some of the flagon forms.
78.
PICTURE White fabric, buff core, distorted, a rather heavy, angular rim-profile,
grooved above the handles.
79.
PICTURE Pinkish cream, sandy fabric, light-red core, pitted, flattened at the rim.
80.
PICTURE Heavy neck, creamy, fairly sandy fabric, buff core, flat and curved
rim-profile.
81. Heavy neck, cracked in firing, in white fabric with some sanding and buff
core, an elaborately grooved and curved rim-profile.
82. Off-white creamy fabric, buff core, with a disc rim-profile.
vi. Cooking-pots and Bowls (Fig. 3.4)
Only two vessels of this class have so far been at all restored from the mass of
wasters. The bodies of these pots are generally thinner than many other forms
and broken up in much smaller fragments.
83
PICTURE and 84 are both badly over-fired to a brittle, dull red colour and their
fabric is heavily tempered with sand; they both present elaborately formed rims.
vii. Lids (Fig. 3.4)
Nos. 85-96 illustrated the series of lids which, except for no. 85, are more or
less in the same pinkish, buff fabric, with a fairly coarse texture.
90 PICTURE
91
PICTURE 92 PICTURE
93 PICTURE 94 PICTURE
95 PICTURE 96
PICTURE
85 PICTURE is a curious vessel included in the lid forms, though it is not impossible
that it may have been a fairly deep, wide bowl. The fabric of this pot is creamy
yellow, very smooth and somewhat shiny, very slightly pitted and so far as known
is unlike any fabric so far noted. The body of this pot is well formed, slightly
curved, with grooving above the carinated upper portion and a very high internal
kick. If this vessel was not intended as a lid, it would suggest, but for its
kick, an attempt to imitate samian Form 29, which it otherwise closely recalls.
viii. Cheese-press (Fig. 3.4)
97.
PICTURE Several fragments conjoining from a cheese-press, some of which had been
incorporated in the structure of the medieval tilery, in yellowish white, hard,
sanded fabric.
Sherds from at least one other cheese-press have been isolated, but the form of
the pot is identical with no. 97, above.
ix. Mortaria (Figs. 3.4-3.6)
Mortaria were well represented in the wasters from this kiln, and nos. 98-123
illustrate the majority of them. Mrs. K.F. Hartley was kind enough to examine
them and her comments are appended below.