Exponential Decline in the Dispersal of Stone Artefacts in Roman Britain: Further Expressions of Trade

Several industries that exploited stone are known to have sprung up in Iron Age–Roman and Roman Britain. They include the fashioning of rotary querns from the Upper Old Red Sandstone of the Forest of Dean and the Lower Cretaceous Hythe Beds (Lodsworth rock) of West Sussex, the production of whetstones from sandstones in the Weald Clay Formation of the north‐west Weald, and the manufacture of a wide range of products from the Upper Jurassic Purbeck Marble of south‐east Dorset. The dispersal of goods from these sources is found to exhibit a similar exponential decline with distance to that previously demonstrated for prehistoric stone artefacts and Romano‐British ceramics. Evidently, interactions at settlements led to the retention of a roughly constant proportion of the goods brought there.     

LAST ORDERS: CHOOSING POTTERY FOR FUNERALS IN ROMAN ESSEX

Summary.   This paper examines ceramic vessels from Roman-period funerary contexts in Essex. Using correspondence analysis, it charts changes in the choice of funerary pottery and isolates the elements in pottery assemblages that unite or differentiate sites. The paper finds that the status of sites can be distinguished on ceramic grounds, reflecting cultural differences in life. Jars and beakers are characteristic of settlement cemeteries, while cups are more typical of high-status burials. Flagons and samian ware are common between them. Underlying funerary traditions are rooted in continuity from the Late Iron Age, rather than post-conquest change. The study also suggests that funerary pottery was selected out of the supply intended for domestic use.     

AN EXAMPLE OF THE PROCESS OF ACCULTURATION IN THE EARLY ROMAN FRONTIER

Summary. This paper looks at how the process of acculturation can be detected in the archaeological record. It considers the specific case of acculturation in the Upper Rhine during the early Roman period and attempts to demonstrate how archaeological material can be used to evaluate social changes. Various aspects of the pottery assemblage, which relate to different aspects of pottery production and use, are considered such as production technology, style, and form. Many of the changes result from cultural changes which occurred as a result of interaction between the Roman and local peoples. Other works concerning acculturation are reviewed to determine what types of factors are involved in the process. These factors are considered, in relation to the Upper Rhine, in a discussion of the changes in the pottery and how they relate to social changes. Various explanatory models are proposed.     

The Isle of Portland: An Iron Age Port-of-trade

The Isle of Portland (Dorset, England) was part of a trading system that involved the circulation of goods in and across the English Channel during the first century BC. This paper assesses the suitability of Portland as an Iron Age port-of-trade, focuses on the exotics found there and discusses evidence for its hill-fort, which was destroyed in the middle of the nineteenth century     

Polesworth: a north Warwickshire country pottery

Abstract

In 1986 excavations for house foundations at Polesworth in northern Warwickshire (SK 263 980) uncovered a pottery waster dump. Fine wares, lead glazed and unglazed coarsewares, including a number a horticultural vessels, were recovered, together with kiln furniture. An archaeological excavation adjacent to the construction site revealed stratigraphy relating to the backfilling of a clay pit with potting waste early in the 18th century. Documentary and other evidence shows that the pottery was in production from the late 17th to early 19th centuries.     

THE DISCOVERY OF ANOMALOUSLY HIGH SILVER ABUNDANCES IN POTTERY FROM EARLY ROMAN EXCAVATION CONTEXTS IN JERUSALEM*

This is the first study on the differential distribution and concentrations of silver in ceramics recovered from archaeological excavations. The chemical compositions of 1174 pottery vessels from 38 Roman‐period sites in Israel have been determined. Unusually high and variable abundances of silver were discovered in pottery samples of all vessel types and chemical compositions from four distinct archaeological contexts dating to late first century bce to 70 ce Jerusalem. The large majority of the Jerusalem vessels could be distinguished by their silver abundances from all analysed pottery pieces recovered at rural sites outside Jerusalem, even when the pottery types and chemical compositions, except for silver, of pottery found within and outside Jerusalem were indistinguishable. The evidence is suggestive of a human origin for the high and variable silver abundances, and dispersion of the silver by aqueous transport. The differential silver concentrations found in excavated pottery from Jerusalem and other urban and rural sites suggest that attention to the distribution of silver in pottery from excavated contexts may be helpful for evaluating the nature and function of archaeological remains and patterns of urban contamination.     

Notice of the Annual Meeting,at Norwich

Excavations took place in 1969, in advance of housing development, on the site of a fourth-century Roman pottery workshop, two adjacent kilns, a well, a large pit and two burials. The workshop contained internal features linked with pottery production, including possible emplacements for potters' wheels. Two kilns, each constructed differently, were producing grey and colour-coated wares. A large pit was used for rubbish. A well, square in plan, was associated with the workshop and must have provided water for the potters. Of particular interest was a complete millstone, which appears to have been used as a flywheel fixed to a potter's wheel. Pottery production at the site may have continued into the early part of the fifth century and as such is one of the last known production centres of the Roman Nene valley pottery industry. The site is significant in that it probably represents a near complete and typical industrial pottery production unit within a major pottery production area of the province and represents an important aspect of the late Roman economy.     

POTTED HISTORIES – CREMATION, CERAMICS AND SOCIAL MEMORY IN EARLY ROMAN BRITAIN

Summary.   Archaeologists have identified the adoption of new forms of cremation ritual during the early Roman period in south-east Britain. Cremation may have been widely used by communities in the Iron Age, but the distinctive nature of these new rites was their frequent placing of the dead within, and associated with, ceramic vessels. This paper suggests an interpretation for the social meaning of these cremation burial rites that involved the burial of ashes with and within pots as a means of commemoration. In this light, the link between cremation and pottery in early Roman Britain can be seen as a means of promoting the selective remembering and forgetting of the dead.     

Attempts at thermoluminescence dating of fired materials from the Przeworsk Culture settlements

The thermoluminescence (TL) dating method has a significant measurement error margin reaching almost 10%. Due to this fact it could be considered as little effective in case of such sites from the Roman period as burial grounds with many artefacts useful for archaeological dating. However, for many settlements from this period, where pottery is the only kind of artefacts, the TL method can give notable results. The main purpose of the study was to make an attempt at TL dating of pottery and clay daub samples from the Nieszawa Kolonia and Kręcieszki sites and to compare the obtained dates with the results of archaeological dating of selected features from the Przeworsk Culture settlements. In the Kręcieszki site the fragments of burnt clay daub were dated by the TL method for the first time in the Lublin laboratory. It turned out that clay daub is an equally good dating material as pottery. It can be found that the TL dating of pottery from Nieszawa Kolonia confirms two stages of settlement. The first settlement stage is related to the phases B2-B2/C1-C1a of the Roman period, i.e. from the beginning of the 2^nd to the beginning of the 3^rd century. The second group of TL dates corresponds to the phases C2D that is to the second stage of settlement, from the second half of the 3^rd century to the half of the 5^th century AD. The results of TL dating of pottery and clay daub in the Kręcieszki site are rather similar and correspond to the phase B1/B2 of the period of Roman influence, determined from pottery style, but can also indicate the phase B2/C1.     

浙江平湖戴墓墩良渚文化遗址发掘简报

戴墓墩遗址位于浙江省平湖市乍浦镇,遗址总面积约16万平方米。2001年3月,平湖市博物馆对遗址进行了小范围的发掘,已发现1处良渚文化红烧土堆积和5座良渚文化墓葬,随葬器物有陶器、玉器、石器等。发掘表明,这是一处良渚文化祭坛和墓地的复合遗址,5座墓葬的年代为良渚文化中期。此次发掘出土了一批精美的陶器,其中带盖宽把陶杯是良渚文化陶器中的精品。     

POST-MIDDENISM: DEPOSITIONAL HISTORIES ON LATER BRONZE AGE SETTLEMENTS AT BROOM, BEDFORDSHIRE

Summary.   This paper considers recent discussions of 'deliberate', 'formal', 'placed', 'special', 'structured', or 'token' deposits on later prehistoric settlements in Britain. It argues that while these concepts have certainly been very important in raising and forefronting the interpretative possibilities that depositional practices might offer, the idea of structured deposition has, at times, been adopted and applied somewhat simplistically. In such instances, exploration of the potential complexity and interpretative scope of depositional histories on later prehistoric settlements has been substantially curtailed. Current understandings of depositional practices involving pottery and burnt human bone are examined, and alternative interpretations offered, through a case study of the evidence recovered from a series of later Bronze Age settlements at Broom Quarry, Bedfordshire.     

A MAGNETIC SURVEY OVER LA MAJA,AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE IN NORTHERN SPAIN

A Roman archaeological site in northern Spain (La Maja, province of La Rioja) includes pottery workshops, part of an important ceramic industry that developed from about the first century BC to the first century AD. A geophysical study was planned to determine the extent of the industrial complex in the vicinity of an excavated kiln. Magnetic observations were done on a grid of 30 × 36m, with a sampling interval of 1m. Two dipolar-shaped anomalies were found: one in the north-east and the other in the south-west of the area. Low-pass and band-pass filters were used in the Fourier domain to enhance the characteristics of the magnetic data and to remove noise and undesirable shallow features. Three-dimensional polygonal prisms were used to model the magnetic anomalies based on palaeomagnetic measurements performed over an uncovered kiln that helped to constrain the induced and remanent parameters of the magnetizing fields.     

Between archives and the site: the 19th-century iron and steel industry in the Monklands,Central Scotland

Abstract

A case is made that attention should shift from the archaeology of process, guided largely by the archival evidence, to the archaeology of practice by scrutinizing the material record. Holistic Context Analysis applied to the industrial soils and finds at Moffat Upper Steam Forge has led to a more coherent and realistic picture of construction and demolition at the site, as well as of its puddling industry, than could be learned from the historical narrative of the iron and steel industry in the Monklands, the most industrialized part of Scotland in the 19th century.     

ITALIAN TERRA SIGILLATA: A SOPHISTICATED ROMAN INDUSTRY

Summary: The fine red terra sigillata pottery of Italy, associated in both ancient and modern times with the Etruscan town of Arezzo, is now known to have been produced in many different parts of the peninsula. Indeed, it is clear that some of the largest factories were capable of setting up distant manufacturing subsidiaries in order to take advantage of particular markets. It is also becoming apparent that the potters working at Arezzo itself might supply their products to quite distinct provincial or regional markets from one another. It is hoped that research now under way will clarify such complex patterns of manufacture and trade.     

The causes and impact of changes in fish stocks in the waters around Fair Isle during the twentieth century

Drawing considerably from records of fish catches made by the fishermen of Fair Isle during the 20th century, this article highlights the dramatic decline in fish stocks in the waters around the Isle. It argues that the major cause has been the continuous intensification of the commercial fishing industry outside Fair Isle. Assessment is also made of the socio‐economic and cultural impact on the community of Fair Isle, and means are proposed to retain and regain links with the sea.     

Ceramic findings from the archaeological site at Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi (Siena,Italy): a multi-analytical approach

In 2005, the remains of a Roman villa, dating from the early fourth to the sixth centuries ad, were discovered at the archaeological site of Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi (Siena, Italy). After being abandoned in the sixth century ad, the complex was occupied by a group of Ostrogothic or Lombardic artisans in the period between the sixth and the seventh centuries ad. Many ceramic remains (coarse pottery and red slip ceramics) from the first to the seventh centuries ad have been discovered on this archaeological site. These findings have been analysed using different analytical techniques (optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), and micro-Raman in order to characterize the ceramic body, the coating, the temper, and to investigate the compositional relationship between the different kinds of ceramics. The use of different techniques on the same samples yielded information at different scales. OM and SEM-EDS yielded interesting information on the coarse pottery: the analyses performed on some minerals and rock fragments suggest that stone tesserae from the Roman villa (in the form of numerous marble fragments) were used in the production of this pottery. Bulk analyses (XRD and XRF) and subsequent micro-analyses (SEM-EDS, ATR-FTIR, and micro-Raman) of the red slip pottery revealed clear chemical, mineralogical and textural differences: some ceramics (the TCC sample group) typically have a Fe-enriched coating while others (the INGR sample group) present a clear difference in grain size but no chemical or mineralogical differences between the ceramic body and the coating.     

Notes on the Manufacture of Porcelain at Chelsea

A furnace built in 1618 by Abraham Bigo and Sir William Clavell for the manufacture of window glass was excavated at Kimmeridge, Purbeck, Dorset (SY 909788) in 1980–81. Local oil-shale was used as a fuel in the furnace, whose central fire was fed with air by means of two passages below ground level, as found at other seventeenth-century furnaces and indicated in contemporary sources. The above-ground structure comprised sieges and wings whose plan resembled those of sixteenth-century forest-glass furnaces. Vessel glass was produced at Kimmeridge in traditional forms for sale in the south-western counties, by agreement with Sir Robert Mansell, patentee of the monopoly for glass manufacture. Trade beyond the designated area led to legal action which resulted in the demolition of the furnace in 1623. The excavation showed that the product of the furnace was green vessel glass of good durability, melted in crucibles made from high-quality refractory clay derived from Purbeck sources.     

PORE-SIZE DISTRIBUTION DETERMINATIONS IN NEOLITHIC,IRON AGE,ROMAN AND OTHER POTTERY

A method of evaluating the pore-size distribution of pottery is described and results obtained from a number of samples ranging from Neolithic to modern pottery shown graphically. The method may serve to distinguish between similar-looking sherds if no other means of identification exists, but further work is needed before a series of determining curves can be established.     

The Latest Objects from Silchester,Hants

THIS paper brings together for the first time a selection of medieval glass and pottery distilling-vessels from British sites. A discussion on the technical aspects of distilling by F. Greenaway (Part I) is followed by a report on two important groups of glass and pottery distilling-apparatus from Selborne and Pontefract priories of the middle and late 15th century respectively (Part II). Part III discusses pottery distilling-vessels from other finds in Britain. Two types of pottery alembic are distinguished and their use in association with bases of either furnace or bowl type is suggested; industrial bottles connected with distilling are also briefly considered. The survey has brought much information to light but has also left many problems unanswered. Coordination of documentary research into techniques, archaeological recognition of vessels, and the chemical analysis of residues is necessary before firm decisions can be made about the uses of the vessels and the types of unit required for specific operations. It is hoped that this paper will stimulate further work in this field.     

NEW EVIDENCE FOR APULIAN RED‐FIGURE PRODUCTION CENTRES

A total of 52 South Italian red‐figure vases were subjected to neutron activation analysis. The primary aim of the study was to determine whether all Apulian red‐figure pottery datable to the period c. 430–340 bc was produced at the Greek colony of Taras, as has been widely assumed. Three chemically distinct compositional groups were isolated and compared to archaeological reference material from Taranto. The results of this comparison suggest that some Early Apulian red‐figure pottery may have been produced outside of Taras from the fifth century bc onwards.