TRADE IN GREEK DECORATED POTTERY

Summary. The suggestions that Greek decorated pottery was cheap, and that in trade overseas it can be regarded as little more than 'saleable ballast', are refuted by demonstration of its relative value, by weight and by volume, beside that of other commodities for which comparable evidence is available. From this its profitability may also be deduced.     

ICTIS DISENTANGLED, AND THE BRITISH TIN TRADE

Summary. Recent writers here, on routes by sea to ancient Britain, have revived the quest for Ictis, recorded as a port for the trade in its tin. Apart from Caesar's De Bello Gallico, nearly all the relevant sources are in Greek, and one of the few in Latin is from previous Greek. The relevant archaeology, marine technology and natural sciences, should still be advantaged by attention to these texts, in their wording and their contexts and chronology. They comprise three groups: Pytheas and Timaeus, before and after 300 BC, Polybius and Posidonius, before and after 100, Diodorus in the middle first century and Strabo near its end. Pliny, after the middle first century AD, quotes Timaeus. Each of the three groups throws light on the trade, Diodorus almost certainly, and nearly always Strabo, reflecting what had been shed by writers before them. It is Diodorus, expected here to be using Posidonius, who tells us of Ictis. But the various dates of the evidence altogether, when compared with the archaeological and scientific findings, let routes for the trade be distinguished not only in geography, but also in the chronology of their use. This essay takes account of all relevant work done hitherto, but advances beyond it wherever this is seen to be feasible. It disentangles the location of Ictis from persistent error, though doing so cannot yet fix it with final probability; but putting all the ancient sources for the trade to a critical scrutiny, with exact translations, enhances their accord with archaeology.     

A TIME OF CHANGE: THE IRON AGE TO ROMAN MONETARY TRANSITION IN EAST ANGLIA

Summary. The majority of Icenian coin hoards have traditionally been dated to the historical events of the Boudican revolt. This paper removes that link and examines the material using classical numismatic methods to show that far from all being of one date they represent a series of depositions throughout the period of the client kingdom: AD 43–60/1. It also demonstrates the gradual increase in use of Roman coins within that kingdom alongside the local Iron Age series.