Aspects of Kentish Local History

Finds from the excavation of Eccles Roman Villa, Kent

First-century pottery manufacture at Eccles, Kent by Alec Detsicas
  
Roman Pottery Studies in Britain and Beyond. BAR S30 Oxford, 19-36

that Ditch X must have been filled in some time before this earliest building, certainly by c. A.D. 65. The samian sherds found with the wasters are all South Gaulish and belong to Forms 18, 24 (stamped MOM) and 29 in a Claudio-Neronian style; they can all be dated to not later than c. A.D. 65, perhaps earlier.

   It would, consequently, appear beyond much doubt that the pottery-making activity established by this waste deposit must have ceased by A.D. 65 at the latest, which accords very well with the external dating of the mortaria in this deposit. How soon this industry began and how long it continued, it is impossible to say definitively until the whole deposit has been fully examined and studied; however, early ditches at the villa site contain in their filling pottery of Claudian date, and it is not improbable that pottery making began at the kiln site fairly soon after the Roman conquest.

GENERAL
   The kiln at this site was used for pottery made locally with Gault clay which virtually outcrops in this area and is practically free from intrusions though, clearly, varying amounts of fine sand had been used for tempering the paste of the vessels made with this clay.
   The question of marketing such well made, fully Romanised vessels cannot be discussed at this juncture, but the forms of the vessels made and their fabric as well as the preponderance of the Hofheim-type flagons point to a probable army contract, if not direct military involvement in their manufacture.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

   I am very indebted to the friends whose assistance at the site made its excavation possible; to the landowners, Messrs. Reed Paper & Board (U.K.), Ltd., for allowing our work on their land; to Mrs. K.F. Hartley, for her kindness in dealing with the mortaria; and to Mr. and Mrs. R. Lowson, who undertook at short notice the drawing of the pottery for my illustrations. It is with great pleasure that I also record my debt to my friend John Gillam, to whose enthusiasm and teaching I owe my entire interest in coarse pottery.

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